An outdoor swimming pool has been forced to cancel an event “open exclusively to black communities” after backlash.
A pool in Berlin had been given €300,000 (£255,000) of taxpayer to open a “people’s swimming pool” which it vowed would be open for all during Germany’s sweltering summers.
The pool, opened by the The Volksbühne, a theatre in the city centre, had scheduled a swim event on Friday where the pool would be open “exclusively to black communities” for six hours as part of a collaboration with the non-governmental organisation Each One Teach One.
But the swim event quickly faced criticism from politicians.
Stefan Evers, the city’s finance minister, who is also running as the Christian Democrat candidate for mayor, said: “I don’t believe in dividing people by skin colour”.
“I understood the ‘People’s Swimming Pool’ as a swimming pool for everyone,” he added.
It was also opposed by Christoph Meyer, a candidate for the Free Democratic Party, who said: “Public spaces must bring society together, not segregate people based on skin colour.”
But Elif Eralp. the Left Party’s candidate for mayor defended the event.
“On Friday, an association has booked the pool for its members legally,” she said.
“In doing so, the People’s Swimming Pool provides access for people who are frequently affected by exclusion and racism.
“Labelling this as a form of discrimination is very revealing.”
The fierce backlash led to the event being cancelled, as the theatre complained it had become a target of “racist incitement”.
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Matthias Lilienthal, the theatre director, said the event would be rebooked and he would appear at the swimming pool to discuss the issue.
Each Teach One said it received threatening and racist emails and could no longer guarantee the safety of “black, African and Afro-diasporic” youth at the event.
The row over the swimming pools comes amid a scorching European heatwave.
This summer, Germany broke its record for the hottest day ever, while over 10,000 people, mostly aged 85 or older, have died because of the extreme heat, according to the Robert Koch Insitute.
Temperatures reached up to 38 C in Germany on Friday in the third major heatwave in Germany.
Drought conditions have been declared in much of the country, as Germany faces its own set of wildfires.
A large forest fire in the Hürtgenwald forest forced a village of around 2,000 people to be evacuated overnight.
The fire, near Aachen, is believed to cover an area of at least 200 hectares, according to European media.
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