BERLIN: THE BREAST OF TIMES

Adiscrimination complaint has led Berlin authorities to make it official: women are free to go topless at its swimming pools , just as men are. Though topless bathing in public was not expressly forbidden in the German capital, a 33-yearold woman, Lotte Mies, approached the State Office for Equal Treatment and

Against Discrimination in December after she was ejected from a swimming pool for refusing to cover her breasts.

Noting that Berlin’s pools did not have “gender-specific rules” and instead simply specified that patrons must wear “commercial swimwear”, the ombudsman ruled that this was indeed a case of discrimination, leading the Berliner Baederbetriebe, which manages the city’s public pools, to officially update its rules.

In a statement, government officials said: “Berlin bathing establishments will in future apply their house and bathing regulations in a gender-equitable manner.”

Dr Doris Liebscher, the head of the ombudsman’s office, said it welcomed the decision “because it creates equal rights for all Berliners, whether male, female or nonbinary, and because it also creates legal certainty for the staff in the bathing establishments.

“Now it is a matter of the regulation being applied consistently and no more evictions or house bans being issued.”

Pictured here is a famous sculpture exemplifying Berliners’ long-held embrace of nudity. The four life-size bronze nudes, titled Drei Mädchen und ein Knabe (Three Girls and a Boy) were created by German Wilfried Fitzenreiter between 1977 and 1979 and originally sat in the centre of a fountain on Karl-Liebknecht-Straße outside Palasthotel in East Germany.

When, after German reunification, the hotel was demolished in 2001, the statues were placed in storage before being moved in 2007. Today you will find them on the eastern bank of the city’s river, across from Berlin Cathedral.

● To stand a chance of winning R500, tell us the name of the river. Email your answer to travelquiz@sundaytimes.co.za before noon on March 21.