After complaints from bathers, the Duisburg Niederrhein-Therme spa banned women from wearing revealing bikinis. As Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) reported, some visitors felt disturbed by revealing swimwear.
“We are a place in which many cultures meet. Liberalness is not always tolerated by all visitors,” said a spokeswoman for the Niederrhein-Therme to the WAZ, who cited “cultural sensitives” as the reason behind the ban.
In Duisburg, which is located in the west of Germany, 43.3 percent of the population have a migrant background. In the Hamborn district, where the thermal spa is located, the proportion is 57.4 percent.
In the future, employees will point out the ban to scantily clad women. The visitors would then have to change their swimwear, stressed the spokeswoman. String thongs do not belong in a wellness center, according to the spa representatives.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) parliamentary group leader in the Hessian state parliament, Robert Lambrou, told Junge Freiheit that a spokeswoman for the thermal spa had said to him that wearing burkinis was allowed. The so-called burkini is a two-piece swimwear for women that covers the entire body except for the face and hands, typically worn by Muslim women.