Glad you clarified this ....... so many of the local expats preface their opinions (usually negative) about cultural matters with the word WHY?!!

I would like to point out that it is not just the sauna in Germany. I was in the Hyatt in Cologne and they have a pool. The locker room and shower facilities of this Hyatt were CO-ED and there was a full naked women showering with a naked man in the locker room (the sauna and steam were in this area). The pool was textile though.

I have been to a therme outside Nuernberg and was exposed to the naked sauna and the co-ed locker room (with stalls if you wanted to change in private); but most of the people (men and women) were changing out in the open. Most of the people who used the stalls were families where young children were a little shy.

So, now I expect in Germany that you may be exposed to co-ed changing facilities more often than not.

That is unusual even in Germany. In all the German hotels that I have stayed at, there are always separate locker rooms for women and men.

+1. :p

I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience in a naked spa situation at Casa Velas Boutique Hotel this past year. Showering and saunaing with just men in a clothing optional situation was new to me as an born an bred American. I know that if I had the desire, I would have been able to do the same with my 'wife' or 'girlfriend' and then who knows from there. As a gay man, I happened to be enjoying the spa services with some men we met beforehand and had no problem with the nudity aspect, as it was actually a little intriguing and invigorating for all of us. There was no partner swapping or anything like that, it was just nice to be free and accepted in every way.

I think the question here should be "Why do Americans get so hung up about this"

:D

+1 ^

Why do you think the OP is American?

:td: Did you read the OP's location?

I do business in Germany every year. Germans/Ukraine/Russians are open about Nudity in spas. (...) The Cologne spas are amazing.

My theory was always that they think it deters perverts. They figure a pervert who'd get 'excited' by the nudity would be put off by the fact that his 'excitement' might be clearly visible. Or to put it in a broader context - they feel nudity as a communally shared element is asexual and 'pure' whereas the presence of a clothed person introduces an element of shame and sexual friction.

There's of course a long history of nudism in Germany and ties in with a cultural obsession with the 'natural' (see organic food, anti-nuclear energy movement, popularity of hiking, esoteric movements etc.) that to that extent doesn't exist in the rest of Europe or the 'West'.

There's a whole other thread on this from a while back:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...otel-spas.html

Maybe the moderators could combine?

I was in Finland recently and got to talking with a Finnish woman who was telling me she has a traditional "smoke sauna" at home. I asked if she had ever had sex in the sauna and she seemed horrified that I would ask such a question. It's one thing when it's public, but in her own sauna at home? Clearly part of the sauna culture, although she's missing out in my opinion. :rolleyes:

Funny question..... I don´t use saunas and don´t like nudity. But it´s clearly not a sexual place