NATURISM AND NUDISM IN EUROPE NATURIST HOLIDAYS

NAKED CULTURE

While the U.S. was banning pictures of naked bathers, the first nudists were stripping themselves of the Victorian era prudery and bathing naked in Freilichtpark (free light park) in Lubeck, Germany (1903 - 1981). Nacktkultur, the German nudism, stressed naked healthful living, which included daily calisthenics, a vegetarian diet, and Spartan outdoor living. German immigrants and Americans visiting Freilichtpark brought this philosophy to the U.S. by 1929.
After some arrests and a favorable ruling in New York court, allowing that men and women can socialize together nude without being lewd, the concept of nudism got national exposure.

In 1933, the International Nudist Conference was formed, which would later become the American Sunbathing Association, and by the mid 1930s there were eighty-one nudist camps across America. Most nudist camps, to some degree, still followed the philosophy of nudism as part of a healthy regimen, and organized nudism was selective of who could be members of the "landed clubs."

THE GENERATION GAP

Organized Nudism, the ASA, and landed clubs became the establishment. The rebellious youth of the 1960s weren't about to go behind the walls of a nudist cloister. A new free light and free love culture, based on an honest body acceptance, asked why we didn't do it in the road. Acceptance of the nude body was only natural, and young people across Europe and America experienced the freedom of being nude at the beach, in the stream or wilderness, or on their back porch or sundeck. Often called "The Free Beach Movement," in the seventies, it was a philosophy of open nudism that would be called naturism.

Because they escaped our history of overbearing religious prudery, mainland Europeans have enjoyed more personal freedoms than Americans. For years most European tourist beaches have allowed topfree bathing for women. Nude beaches are now common and popular throughout the continent, including Eastern Europe.

Modern nudism began in Germany and France. France now has a nudist resort city, Cap d'Agde, on the Mediterranean. Since the early seventies, Denmark and the Netherlands have become quite accepting of nudity in general, and there have been nudist activities on city streets and parks of both countries. All but two of Denmark's beaches are clothing optional.

In 1980, the Naturist Society was formed in the U.S. to provide information and support for the free beach and other naturist groups around the country. The Naturist Action Committee monitors and assists in the ongoing nationwide struggle to keep clothing optional beaches and recreational areas from being closed by the narrow-minded fanatics who still echo Comstock's 19th century prudery.

National opinion polls in 1983 and 1990 revealed that 72% of Americans approve of designated clothing optional beaches. To date, over 30 million Americans have experienced mixed social nudity. With the growing number of naturists here, and tourists from Europe, South Florida now has an established clothing optional beach at Haulover.