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For the third consecutive year, Germans were the most likely to sunbathe fully nude, with 28% saying they have spent a day at the beach in the buff. But for the first time this year, Austrians tied them. Worldwide, more men than women prefer to sunbathe nude.
I half-expected an arrow to start blinking in the direction of my genitals, but the only thing that came my way was a young boy with hay-blonde hair running past me toward his naked grandfather. I was a naked stranger in a naked land watching naked Germans flit about Flaucher like wild fairies in a midsummer’s nude dream. Only it wasn’t a dream – it was a totally typical Bavarian day.
When West Germans started to holiday all over Europe, they brought their penchant for letting it all hang out with them. Nude resorts began opening in France in the 1950s, followed by increasingly popular FKK ventures in Yugoslavia and on the Baltic Sea.
Germans have been shedding their clothes for a century. The first nude beach in Germany was established in 1920 on the island of Sylt.
“Free-body culture” promotes harmony with nature, and today some Germans sunbathe nude, strip down to play sports and even hike in the buff.
