This week marks a demonstration by Flussbad Berlin to push for lifting a swimming ban that has been in place since 1925 due to health risks posed by polluted water. Around 300 people participated by swimming in the Spree River, raising awareness about the need for urban waterways to be accessible and clean. Copenhagen's success with river swimming and the recent cleanliness efforts in Paris have inspired similar movements in other cities, including Berlin, which is seeing growing support for the initiative.
The last time there was full-scale river swimming in Berlin's city centre, before access was outlawed a century ago, there were probably fewer inflatable unicorns and fluorescent pool noodles.
Activists from the Flussbad Berlin pressure group have been lobbying since 2012 to lift the restrictions on swimming in the Spree imposed in May 1925, when an explosion in the city's population and an industrial boom made the quality of the river water dangerous to human health.
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