Volksbad an der Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin, 2026

Media outlets such as the Berlin daily newspaper BZ and Nius [1] have been grumbling about the “Volksbad,” a temporary pool for the public on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in front of the Volksbühne in Berlin: They claim the entire project is “an embarrassing PR stunt by a spoiled cultural elite that’s throwing taxpayers’ money out the window.” [2]Yet things have also taken a more serious turn. For six hours, the pool was “exclusively” reserved for children from the Black community who are cared for by the Each One Teach One (EOTO) association. The announcement of that event on the Volksbühne’s website, with its combination of “Black” and “exclusive” [3] , went viral; it sparked the ensuing firestorm of criticism, which escalated to the point of death threats against EOTO organizers. This followed the familiar pattern of reversing the roles of perpetrator and victim: “Apartheid,” claimed Alice Weidel; “White people are to be excluded!” shouted right-wing digital media outlet Nius. [4] According to Tagesspiegel columnist Gerrit Bartels, this is “an accusation of discrimination that couldn’t be more ridiculous.” [5] The friendly event in front of the monumental facade of the legendary Volksbühne theater has turned into a political act to be taken seriously, thanks to Nius, the AfD, WELT, BILD, and the far-right online militia.

An outdoor swimming pool with half-naked people is usually located on the outskirts of a city. Upon entering, people swim there in a space that is ideally shielded from view, free from Peeping Toms and people secretly taking photos or filming. In this regard, the space is monitored, and violations are penalized. And now this: a swimming pool right in the city center, in front of a theater on a heavily visited square with car traffic, a movie theater, bars, and a subway station. But, as befits an outdoor pool, it’s fenced off, and access is controlled. You can’t just wade in like you would at a lake – there are rules: shower first, no headfirst dives (though cannonball dives are allowed!). But unlike at a typical outdoor pool, where swimmers don’t expect an audience behind the fence, this pool – like the theater – is a stage. Outside on the square, people in street clothes watch as people in swimsuits and bikinis sunbathe on the surrounding platform. It takes a certain amount of chutzpah to face this kind of scrutiny. But perhaps the socially conditioned sense of body shame has changed since social media became a stage for the private sphere? The project is definitely Instagram-worthy.

Does Foucault’s term heterotopia apply to this place? Transposed from its original medical meaning [6] , it fits perfectly: a functionally organized and regulated structure that is not located in its intended place. But this rule-breaking location is only possible because a publicly funded theater planned and implemented it in close coordination with all the authorities – and there are many – responsible for public space: heterotopic bathing in an institutionally protected art space.

In his response to the hostility from the right-wing camp, Berlin’s Senator for Culture, Stefan Evers, said: “Personally, I don’t believe in categorizing people by skin color. I’m a believer in coexistence,” and, “I had actually understood the ‘Volksbad’ to mean a ‘bathhouse for everyone.’” [7] It’s just unfortunate that the AfD and their ilk had used precisely this argument to justify their reversal of perpetrator and victim roles. So Evers was quick to add: “Art is allowed to provoke. It aims to and should spark debate. That is its purpose. That is its mission.” [8] Well then.… The City Administration had to clarify that the temporary “exclusivity” of Black bodies in a pool in the city center is lawful under the LADG (Berlin State Anti-Discrimination Act). This highlights the gap between reality (the LADG) and the ideal (Germany’s Basic Law). Will the AfD also take action if, as planned (although discreetly hidden in the program behind the association name “Gangway”), the pool is reserved for one day for homeless people and their caregivers?

Th backlash is what gave the project its full interventionist impact in the first place. The heterotopia frays into the uncontrollable expanse of online-driven visibility. The children cared for by EOTO are the ones who lose out in this convoluted attention economy.

Susanne von Falkenhausen is a professor emerita of modern art history, with a focus on modernism at the Institute for Art and Visual History at Humboldt University in Berlin. Her book publications include, among others, KugelbauVisionen: Kulturgeschichte einer Bauform von der Französischen Revolution bis zum medienzeitalter (Transcript, 2008) and Jenseits des Spiegels: Das Sehen in Kunstgeschichte und Visual Culture Studies (Fink, 2015), also published in English as Beyond the Mirror: Seeing in Art History and Visual Culture Studies (Transcript, 2020, and open access).

Imgae credit: Courtesy of Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, photo Bahar Kaygusuz