5. Naked Cyling. 5.1.»We Only Want to Have Fun«- Why Information Technology Engineers Cycle Naked.

Transcription

1 5. Naked Cyling 5.1.»We Only Want to Have Fun«- Why Information Technology Engineers Cycle Naked. 94 On the 24th August 2004, the Main Echo carried a notice mentioning 8 naked cyclists. A spokesman for the Alzenauer police was quoted as saying that while no charges had been brought by any member of the public, against any one of the 8 cyclists: We are unable to tolerate this, in particular because of the children. The police had taken the personal details of the cyclists and forwarded these on to the Aschaffenburg civil authorities. In the meantime a fine was charged to each of the cylclists, against which several were intending to appeal. One member of the public wrote to the paper: Don t the police have better things to be do? There is a contradiction here, in the behaviour of the police. Right across Germany, people commonly swim and sunbathe naked at lakes, and at the same time in every newspaper kiosk there is so much naked skin to be seen. But as soon as a naked cyclist or naked walker appears, there is an instant response by a very few so-called civic-minded people, with the support of judges and the like, to fight against and harass them.

2 The editor of the Main Echo then questioned the head solicitor of the justice department of Aschaffenburg. Apparently the charges the cyclists were going to have to answer to were now: Indecent Exposure, (the relevant statute in the rule books is 183), and that they had exhibited sexual behaviour in a public place. Is it really sexual behaviour, when someone cycles along a footpath naked?, Naked cycling can be a sexual act., replied the solicitor. Because there were no witnesses prepared to confirm the allegation, this particular charge could not be pressed. A charge of Disturbing the Peace, via use of the 118 statute, might also have been brought, and if succesful this would have probably resulted in a hefty fine too. The Main Echo carried 3 reports on this event and, finding them quite informative, we wanted to present these to our readers here. When we requested permission to quote them verbatim, we recieved the response from the Editor-in- Chief of the newspaper that he explictly refused the permission to print the articles in question. We were quite surprised by this immediate and adamant refusal, and wondered about the reasons behind it. 95

3 96 Was it the knowledge that, without any approval, the paper had published the full name and the town of one of the naked cyclists, or was it perhaps that the paper did not wish to be seen as working behind closed doors. In nearby provinces other measures began to be taken, for example in the eastern town of Belzig near Berlin, where the Police Commissioner in 2000 said, to the naked walker HansFriedrich, that nudism in the woods and forests was unnacceptable. To complete the above story regarding Hans, the naked cyclist, we are fortunately able include his article which he submitted to the Wald-FKK forum: The Alzenau police and the naked cyclists, a report by Hans: On Sunday 22nd August 2004, we set off with 11 participants, the group included 3 women, for the first Main Naked Cycling Tour in Steinheim near Hanau am Main. We biked along the cycle paths in beautiful weather, swam in the river Main itself, and crossed to the other side at a ford. We cycled along the bank, in the Spessart, until we passed the border between Hessen and Bayern. We rested at a lake in the Kahltal and then continued for about 3 hours, cycling naked the whole time, until we eventually passed the town of Alzenau. We cycled around the perimeter of the town, still on the cycle path, and were

4 greeted in a friendly manner by every passer-by, cyclist and walker we met, sometimes with gusto. The children laughed along too, and pointed us out to their parents. No-one appeared in the least upset. All of a sudden, and 400 metres in front of us, we saw a police van parked across the cycle-path. They waited until we were quite close, and then a number of police-men and - women climbed out of the van. Hans was the first to arrive: What are you up to then?, Cycling. Ah yes?, Yes, why not? This sort of thing is not allowed around here, please get dressed immediately! Things sort of went downhill from there, identity papers were inspected, the young stone-faced police-woman sat in the police van and radioed the identity information to their control station. Finally she made a list of everyone s name and address, telephone number and occupation. While she was asking for the occupations of each cyclist, one replied: Manager of an IT Engineering Department, and she wrote: Telephone Engineer. A sweet interpretation, of professional status, don t you think? In the meantime a plain dark Audi drove up with the police chief and his chauffeur, and repeated the same old questions: Why, and for goodness sake, why here? This resulted in the statement: we were apparently allowed to cycle around like this, naked, just not here. However no-one 97

5 appeared able to answer the question, where exactly the border of this particular here was. The police chief also said that it was ok to cycle around like this in Hessen. Quote: Pull some clothes on around here, in Hessen you can cycle however you please. Then came the crowning moment: the police-woman suddenly asked me what I had in my cycle-bag, whether I had anything illegal in there. I asked what 98 she meant by that, exactly. You know, weapons, knifes, drugs or some-such! Yes, I replied, I always carry a knife with me, a penknife, but I didn t think that was forbidden? Just a short while ago we had been slicing up vegetables with it. I started to open up my bag, when she pushed her hand in past mine, and pulled out the, naturally closed, penknife in question. Then she asked: Is this sharpened on both edges? A penknife?! I thought this was bordering on a possible charge of harassment. Eventually we were allowed to continue on our Tour, now dressed, and shortly after we stopped at a river-side cafe for a rest, before beginning the return trip. I d like to make clarify a few points regarding the police officials: 1. They were friendly (apart from the rather sharp woman). 2. At no point did anyone allege that what we were doing was in any

6 way forbidden! 3. It was clear there was a distinct difference between their private and their official opinion. In the meantime, the encounter was reported in the Main Echo newspaper, and on the local radio. Hans has been an enthusiastic naturist for over 20 years, and often works naked in his garden. He and his wife Ulla are a well known feature around Frankfurt and have been cycling for years on public paths in this area. No-one has ever taken exception to them, and they have never been in trouble with the police. In an interview with RTL, they even gave advice regarding their hobby. Being naked for them is nothing special. I m not at all ashamed of my body, I find that we all look more or less the same, one is perhaps a bit more beautiful, the other a bit less so but, I must say, when one practices being naked for so long, one just doesn t notice it any more, it s just not very interesting. says Ulla. We also try to avoid particularly busy paths when we re cycling, so we cycle through the woods where we think there won t be so many people. Meeting people is not what we re about, we just like to do what makes us feel good. When there is no-one around, that is of course the best of all. But it s not possible to ban everyone else from the woods, just so that we can go cycling naked; on the other hand, you know, they don t need to look, I always say. The naked couple are a familiar sight on the woodland trails around Frankfurt, and it s only strangers to the area who are surprised to see them. The men whistle sometimes, and I think they like to see a naked woman on a bicycle more than a naked man. To the question about how long they see themselves cycling naked, Hans answers: So long as we keep our fitness. I don t suppose we ll be using Zimmer-frames or wheelchairs naked. But who knows. At the end of the interview, the reporter reads out a short statement: It is impossible to ban the couple, because a law against naked cycling, simply doesn t exist. This is a welcome announcement for many naked cyclists. In other areas the same nacktivists have been known to sing protest songs against the police, says Jochen from Pforzheim who was told by the local authorities, about his naked cycling: We can t stop you, so you d best gerr on yer bike. 99