Naked Germany: Health, Race and the Nation

Abstract

Since the beginning of the twentieth century nude culture has been such a palpable presence in German society that the scarcity of scholarly attention to it is a major surprise. Rather, nudism was a way to reconcile and harmonize the deep divisions in the German nation, often exacerbated by industry, politics and religion. [...] nudist ideology was . . . the means to . . . achieve the larger goal of creating a classless, nudist racial utopia" (11). According to Ross, the movement started simultaneously in Leipzig and Stuttgart, where Heinrich Pudor and Richard Ungewitter, respectively, were the first to make "the decision to become nudists for health reasons" (16). m a short time they had followers in Aachen, Berlin, Bremen, Cassel, Danzig, Elberfeld, Erfurt, Giessen, Glogau, Hamburg, Hildesheim, Kosen, Leignitz, Lüdenscheid, Munich, Münster, Nuremberg, Quedlinburg, Rees, and Stuttgart - virtually every corner of Germany.