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Facebook Twitter Email. CNN — When I was a kid, my father always used to sunbathe nude in our garden at weekends. In public pools, children of all ages were allowed to run around naked all the time. Even now I'm comfortable with getting naked in the sauna or gym changing room. Maybe it's because I'm German. Nudism is traditionally popular in Germany, a country considered buttoned up and conservative compared with, let's say, Italy. When you travel there, you'll see that baring all is normal in saunas, swimming pools, the park and on the beach.

By the 20th century the culture of communal nudity and its benefits to public health blossomed in Germany as an alternative to the stresses of industrialised, urban life. Under the term's "naturism" and "nudism", it is now internationally widespread, with associations and designated recreational environments in numerous countries in Europe, North America, Australia, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean; [2] the largest distribution is still found in German-speaking countries and Scandinavia. The practice of communal nudity is an essential characteristic of naturism, making, as it does, the maximum use of the natural agents of sun, air and water. It restores one's physical and mental balance through being able to relax in natural surroundings, by exercise and respect for the basic principles of hygiene and diet. It encourages many activities that develop one's creativity.

Last year, my husband Les called to say he needed to move to Berlin for work and asked me to join him. Fast forward two entire weeks, and we were living in Germany. A couple of months into our new German life, Les suggested we go to a sauna.