Take it off…No, on second thought, put it back on!

Hey, it’s a treat to see virtually see you today. Glad you could make it! Fill your mug, snag something tasty off the top shelf and let’s have a natter about nude sunbathing, a la German-style. 

According to Reuters - The naked sunbathers who once crowded Germany's Baltic beaches and city parks are becoming an endangered species due to shifting demographics, the fall of the Berlin Wall, growing prosperity and widening girths.

Much to the chagrin of Free Body Culture (FKK) enthusiasts who have been stripping off their clothing on beaches and parks since the early 1900s, a cold wind has been blowing across Germany for nudists and their numbers are steadily dwindling.

"German society is changing and it's not easy to be a naturist anymore," said Kurt Fischer, president of the German FKK association (DFK). There are some 500,000 registered nudists and a total of seven million Germans sunbathe naked regularly.

"But the numbers are unfortunately falling by about two percent each year," Fischer told a group of reporters in the Foreign Press Association (VAP) while sitting, fully clothed, at a beach bar in Berlin's government quarter. "Times are tough."

The main problem is the shrinking population,” Fischer said. “Also, immigrants aren't interested in social nudity."

The dwindling number of Germans has caused a myriad of problems -- affecting everything from beer and schnitzel sales to the numbers of schoolchildren.

Nude sunbathing has a long tradition in Germany. The Free Body Culture (FKK) movement was founded in the early 20th century and succeeded in taking much of the smut and embarrassment out of nudity.

In Germany, public nudity on beaches and lakes is by and large tolerated and practitioners face no legal consequences, although some courts have fined some caught hiking nude on public trails or riding bikes or horses while naked.

Increasing wealth and fashion-consciousness in Germany and especially the east has hurt the movement as well. With the rise in prosperity a lot of people have come apart at the seams and they can't show their bodies in public anymore. They’ve become a lot chubbier with all this prosperity. It's not really very aesthetic anymore."

Now, here in the kingdom, we have 2500 km of golden sandy beaches and a large German tourist presence. Naturally, a percentage of them want to bring their nude, or at least topless, ways here. These practices are frowned upon, the Kingdom being rather prudish when it comes to things like that, but they still happen and as a result, we, the residents, suffer from what I call, ‘visual beach gut overload’ or watching a parade of overweight 40-60 year old beachbunnies and beachbucks with 200+ lbs of gut and rump stuffed into thongs. Not a pretty sight! Never had a hankering, myself.  How about you?

See ya!

Bob