Source: Forbes

Leave it to the Germans to allow naked people to roam freely…but only in certain places.

So goes the general reaction in Europe these days to the news that the city of Munich has given enthusiastic approval to allowing naked people to stroll freely and to sunbathe in public spaces.

This doesn’t mean that just anybody who feels like taking his or her clothes off can strip down everywhere. The city, according to the Atlantic Cities, has designated six official “Urban Naked Zones” in parks offering privacy, but also only minutes away from the busy city center.

“While these areas’ locations in parkland gives them a degree of seclusion, none of them are fenced off or hidden away,” the site reports. “One spot is barely 10 minutes from Munich’s main square, located along a stream to which tourists flock.”

The situation arose due to the recent expiration of legislation controlling nude sunbathing in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital. City leaders had to decide whether to allow sun-seekers to strip in public.

Around the continent, Germans have the reputation of being “nudist obsessive” as well as “tanning obsessive.” It’s no surprise that many nudist beaches around Europe are frequented mostly by Germans — as are saunas and Turkish baths,  where it’s a safe assumption that the most comfortable naked body walking nearby belongs to a German.

“Germans are often considered to be more at one with nature than us prudish Brits,” the Mail Online commented.

Atlantic Cities reaches an interesting conclusion: “Allowing nude sunbathing in these six places, Munich is in many ways only acknowledging a practice that has gone on for years.”

In fact, Germany has allowed nude beaches since 1920, and in Munich the Englischer Garten has been a place for people hanging out in the buff since the 1960s. Its “Beautiful Meadow” area, Schonfeldweise, is considered a must-visit for nudist tourists.

Also a number of spots along some of the islands over the Isar River that runs through the city are public nudist refuges.

For Feargus O’Sullivan of Atlantic Cities, “what Germany does have is a strong exculture tradition that seeks to escape artifice and the pressures of city life to return to something supposedly more natural. Seen in this light, stripping off in public is the voluntary removal of a heavy mask, a return to unvarnished honesty rather than some titter-worthy peek-a-boo. Places where this is allowed to happen are spaces of truce, where there is a generally observed agreement  that people will spare each other physical scrutiny and appraisal.”

In that context, by allowing naked sunbathing Munich is performing its public duty, simply acknowledging that even in the midst of a big city, nature and peace are to be enjoyed in a natural state.

“Whenever the sun is out, you’ll find Münchner of all ages, shapes and sizes catching some rays as nature intended,” writes the Mail Online. “It’s considered as much the perfect lunchtime escape from the stresses of a busy day for office workers as it a place for friends and families to gather at weekends, and the atmosphere is always convivial and laid-back,”

The site speculates that the park is named the English Garden because of its original horticultural style and “not as an ironic way of poking fun at traditional British prudery.”