Swimming in Beauty: The Berliner’s Secret Winter Weapon

It is January. The cacophony of Berlin’s New Year celebrations – music to some, stress to others – has subsided and we are waiting out the time until the 2025 Berlinale season.

The wind howls, there is an almost icy quality to it, like frozen rain but not really snow – and both residents and visitors scratch their brittle-haired winter heads: What to do? How to escape the grey sleet, the toe-curling drafts and the steadily declining mood of the sneezing and sniffling fellow citizens, struck by this season’s third cold wave?

Not to worry, rescue is nigh – in most cases around the corner: Berlin is proudly housing more than 60 indoor pools, and while some resemble any standard indoor pool of any European city, others are a truly uplifting sight for sore winter eyes. Here is what Berliners do to escape the bleak midwinter months: They form swimming groups. They go in pairs and in small giggly packs of friends or neighbours, and even if one or the other drops out because of the aforementioned cold, there are still enough to enjoy a splash with – especially if the surroundings themselves present an aesthetic treat.

Stadtbad Mitte. Photo: Elke A. Jung-Wolff

In Berlin Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg alone, you can choose between two architectural marvels: The very first Berlin pool featuring an Olympian pool length of 50m, situated in Gartenstraße, and a lovely Art Nouveau one in Oderberger Straße we’ll get to in a splash. The light-flooded ‘Stadtbad Mitte James Simon’ pool, also known as ‘Stadtbad Gartenstraße’, opened in 1930, designed in pure Bauhaus style. It was bombed in WW2 but swiftly reopened end of 1945; was again reconstructed during the 80s and then fully reopened in 1993 to the newly united city. Stadtbad Mitte is part of the BBB (Berlin Pools Operations) body, and therefore economically priced at €5,50/90 mins. Make sure to avoid school hours though!

Stadtbad Neukölln. Photo: Andreas Labes

Now at a slightly higher price of €9 (plus €10 for extra sauna and spa access), you can enjoy the magic of the former ‘Stadtbad Oderberger’ (also known as Stadtbad Prenzlauer Berg), today part of the Hotel Oderberger Berlin. Designed in 1898 by architect Ludwig Hoffmann, the whole complex is listed and looks back at a colourful history: For a while, Stadtbad Oderberger was owned by a citizens’ cooperative, to protect its preservation after the wall came down. It was intermittently used as an events and arts space, and finally reopened in 2016 for both hotel guests and outsiders. Each first Tuesday of the month, you can learn more about the space and its history, with a free tour starting at 17:00 – the meeting point is the hotel reception.

If residing in Kreuzberg or Neukölln (hipster title ‘Kreuzkölln’), do not miss out on the public pool in Donaustraße. The “Stadtbad Neukölln” pool opened in 1914, and its mosaics and domes are simply out of this world. Now you know how to swim off the Berlin winter blues – warm up, enjoy and marvel at those indoor beauties! Best enjoyed with friends, and a hot cuppa afterwards.

Photo: Coline Mattée