From 1945 to present[edit]
Young East German women at a naturist beach in Rostock, 1988
East German nude beach at the Bay of Wismar, 1984
In 1949, the Deutscher Verband für Freikörperkultur (DFK) (German Association for Free Body Culture) was founded, which today is a member of the German Olympic Sport Federation (DOSB) and the largest member of the International Naturist Federation (INF).
The first naturist holiday resorts were opened around 1950 in France (Centre-Hélio-Marin in Montalivet-les-Bains, Aquitaine, France).
The nude beach in Kampen on the Sylt island in Germany was particularly popular due to extensive media coverage. FKK resorts in Yugoslavia, France and on the Baltic Seacoast became popular holiday places. Naturist organizations gained many new members in the 1960s.[citation needed]
Social nudism and FKK inspired Naturism was particularly popular in East Germany, possibly because of a more secular cultural development.[3]
In the later decades of the 20th century, naturism became very popular outside Germany. Beach culture was often intermixed – nude and dressed people would swim together and nudity was widely tolerated.
One popular form of Freikörperkultur is Nacktwanderung, literally translated as Naked rambling, where a walking group will collectively hike through the open countryside,[4] which is possible in Germany due to the liberal laws on non-sexual public nudity. This attitude does not extend to German-speaking Austria or Switzerland.[4