Police operations due to violent assaults and sexual harassment have been the order of the day in German outdoor pools for years. But now the riots have reached a new level of escalation: Last Sunday, around a hundred people fought a mass brawl in a Berlin outdoor pool. A large-scale police operation followed, with arrests and injuries. The President of the Lifeguard Association now advises citizens against going to the outdoor pool.
It happened in the outdoor pool at the Insulaner in Berlin-Steglitz Sunday afternoon (June 19, 2022) to an outbreak of violence. First, two groups of four and ten people sprayed each other with water pistols, followed by a verbal and finally a physical altercation. When the security staff there stepped in and wanted to separate the quarrelers, the situation escalated – around a hundred young men, mostly with a migration background, fought in the swimming pool and at the edge of the pool. The situation only calmed down when the police arrived with a large contingent consisting of 13 radio vehicles and part of a hundred units.
Videos are being shared online showing the men hitting and kicking each other. Even a man who is already lying on the ground continues to be attacked. Several people involved were injured. But also an uninvolved one 10 year old suffered a punch. A knife is said to have been used, and a man with cuts had to be treated in the hospital.
Ultimately, only four suspects were arrested, and the police are investigating them for particularly serious breaches of the peace and dangerous bodily harm.
Amthor: “Stronger action against known disruptors”
CDU interior expert and member of the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Philip Amthor commented on the incident in an interview with the Bild newspaper: “These pictures are shocking. The organizers are primarily responsible for ensuring that swimming pools do not become a legal vacuum. I am grateful to the police for their efforts, but our police officers cannot be present in all swimming pools with hundreds at all times. Instead, in cases of doubt, organizers need more controls at an early stage and stronger intervention against known disturbers and their clientele who want to claim public space for themselves.”
It is definitely positive that a politician speaks out about such an incident at all, as a rule such excesses are hushed up by politicians. However, Amthor ultimately only calls for more security guards, although it is already very strange that security staff have to patrol the edge of the pool and the sunbathing areas, where a lifeguard used to suffice. Despite this, violent assaults and sexual harassment are the order of the day, and the swimming pools become focal points. Other incidents of this type that have occurred in the last few days make it clear that this is not an isolated case:
President of the lifeguard association advises against going to the outdoor pool
The President of the Association of Lifeguards, Peter Harzheim, saved compared to the “Bild” also not with criticism and demanded that pool operators have to become more active and “choose their audience better”. The police must also take tougher action: “It cannot be that the people who commit crimes there are released after two hours. Politicians turn a blind eye to the problems and let us down.” The migration background of some of the perpetrators should not mean that the problem is not addressed.
Above all, however, it should be shaking that he can no longer recommend families to visit the outdoor pool. Literally he said: “I have three young grandchildren of my own – if I walked in there with them, I would be acting irresponsibly!” If, of all people, Germany’s “supreme lifeguard”, as the “Bild” calls him, now advises against going to the open-air pool, this can be taken as an unmistakable sign that this area of public space has finally been stolen from the innocent citizens. How long does politics want to watch here?
