Freibad Lichtenberg Pool

No swimming is allowed at the Freibad Lichtenberg since it closed in the late 1980s. Some say it was the end of the Berlin Wall, but who knows for sure? Today you can visit it and think about better times for this abandoned pool in the middle of Lichtenberg.

The pool was built in 1928 and is an addition to the neighboring BVG-Stadion, made a couple of years before 1920. From what I read, the Freibad Lichtenberg was even used by foreign swimmers to train for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and this put some of the pictures here into a weird perspective.

We visited this pool for the first time in the Summer of 2013 while training to walk to Poland. But the pictures here are from the last time we saw this place in September 2017.

There is nothing more to see since the pool was buried for construction work. At least we have the pictures here as a reminder of what used to be there…

After the Second World War, there was no swimming there for a while. Freibad Lichtenberg was closed until the 1970’s when it became one of the many public pools in East Berlin. If you are wondering why a public pool was closed for so long, you must know that Nazi Germany’s anti-aircraft forces were stationed there at the war’s end. Also, the place was being used as a munitions storage facility, and, I’m pretty sure, bombs rained down around where this abandoned pool stands today in Berlin.

After the German Reunification, there was some restoration work being done in the area, and it was there that they found more than 5 tons of munitions and a 250-kilo bomb that must have been dropped from an airplane.

Can you imagine knowing that during all those years, there were bombs close to where East Berliners were having fun?

After the war, the BVG Stadion became the home of the newly formed SV Berliner VG 49 sports club. They still exist today and do a mix of football, handball, athletics, bowling, volleyball, and many more. They don’t use the place anymore, but nobody seems to use it. But it can’t be a bulldozer as well. It happens because the stadium tribune is on the Lichtenberg Monuments list.

If you want to visit the Freibad Lichtenberg and its abandoned pool, you might need to take a tram up there, take a bike, or do like I did the first time I was there and walk to the place. It’s pretty easy to find; you can see the pool from the street, and nobody cared about me taking pictures of the site.

It’s a really easy place to start doing some urban exploration. Bring a friend, a camera, and some beers; you are set for the day.