The lido on Lake Tegel was almost deserted at the beginning of May.
Photo: imago/Jürgen Ritter
The wind sweeps waves across the lake; it is sunny and cold at the same time. I try to swim for a quarter of an hour, choke several times and finally float near the shore with my arms outstretched. The visibility under my swimming goggles is good. Greenish shimmering shells shine as if they had been creamed. I collect a few as souvenirs and wade out. Three cormorants sit on the cordoned-off diving platform, and on the beach a man drives away leaves and flotsam with a wheelbarrow. He looks at me in surprise as I emerge Water come. Only two folding loungers are occupied, the wooden chairs are abandoned in the sand. A duck flies past me. Swallows cruise in the sky above us. There are more birds than people on the opening day of the swimming season Tegeler See lido.
Because a piece of glacier remained lying there for a thousand years after the Ice Age, we have a mighty lake in Berlin that is actually a bulge of the Havel. On this lake there are islands with school farms and allotments, excursion boats, fishing boats and ferries. As I take the bus halfway around the lake on a Wednesday in May, I see a lot of forest. The path goes over hills and sandy ground through the Tegel Forest to the beach. It is shady and lonely in the maze of paths, every now and then a blackbird rustles in the undergrowth. A great spotted woodpecker creaks over from the black woodpecker path. Just as I’m about to get scared, the parking lot and the old blue and white sign for the lido come into view.
Above water
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Anne Hahn is an author of novels and non-fiction books and swims the waters of the world for “nd”.
People have been swimming in the lake for at least 160 years and people from the city center have been drawn here. The industrialist Schwartzkopff had a villa built whose rooms were rented by summer visitors. Since the end of the 19th century there have been various forests on the lake side of the southern Tegel Forest The bathing establishment, changing rooms, jetty, restaurant and boat rental. In the 1920s, unemployed people were allowed to use the municipal bathing establishment free of charge on weekdays from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., and a tent camp club offered overnight stays with cooking facilities. Tens of thousands of Berliners spent their summers on the white beach of the Havel. Fishing fun, family swimming, swimming under stage stars like Fritzi Massary, fights, suicides and swimming accidents included.
The bathing operation ran under various tenants and new buildings until it was closed by the Berliner Bäder-Betriebe in 2016, and the lido has been run by the association since 2021 New neighborhood/Moabit eV operated in a minimalist manner. For a small entrance fee (5/3 €), every person in Berlin receives a piece of happiness – along with art! Last year there was an artis-in-residence program, readings and workshops.
Gusts push white sand through the wooden pavilions onto the street. As I, refreshed, walk home to the bus, a dead tree on the side of the road yelps. I pull my bath towel tightly around my shoulders and think of Goethe. The poet once stopped at the “Alten Fritz” inn not far away and heard ghost stories nightly rumbling in the forestry department at Lake Tegel, which he mocked in “Faust I”. I sing loud and wrong »alone in the Prinzenbad“I’ll feel better soon.”
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