Barfusslaufen in Deutschland

Why do the few German members here believe barefooting is so well accepted in that country, as is not the case in, say, France, Italy, Spain, let alone the U.S. or many South American countries. What is the cultural point at which bare feet are NOT viewed as disrespectful, poor, uncivilized, etc?
Danke sehr!

 

Ganesha, this calls for your reply.

 

I didn't have a problem in France. Not even in the paris Metro, which is quite dirty BTW.

 

Being a German barefooter, I agree that going barefoot is widely accepted in Germany. Especially in the southern parts I would really speak about a true positive perception. I guess, this has the following reasons:

• Going barefoot was strongly recommended by well-renowned SPA pioneers, above all the health priest Sebastain Kneipp. In his honour, Kneipp Gardens with water wading basins have been founded even in many city areas.
• Sensory experience is considered very important in education. Lots of barefoot trails have been established for the purpose to feel a variety of materials with the soles.
• People want to feel close to nature during most of their leisure time. This is by the way the reason for a strong German nudist movement as well.
• People in Southern Germany are very proud of their agricultural traditions. One of them is the allowance to go barefoot in the months without an "R". This resembles the practice of the Amish people, who also are of German origin.

The cleanliness of German cities also favors barefoot living. I made up a little picture gallery. You can convince yourself of clean pavement and playgrounds, water wading facilities and happy barefoot people by looking at
http://www.barfusspark.info/en/cities/cities.htm

By the way, the traditional formal clothing of the Southern Bavarians is very compatible with going barefoot -- look at the councillor assisting the girl's balancing exercise during the foundation event of the Mittenwald barefoot trail:



Hope I could encourage you to leave your shoes at home when visiting Germany!

Live good and unshod,

Lorenz

 

Sorry, Lorenz was faster...

wiggling toes,

~*Ganesha*~

 

I'm not surprised that barefooting occurs so readily in southern Germany amongst the Bavarians. I suppose there are some areas here in the southern U.S. where barefooting is not despised, if not approved. Being barefoot is such a wonderful AND easy AND natural thing to do, yet people almost everywhere don't like a (differently) exposed body part (feet) and the manifold sensations they enable. Hooray for Bavaria! Juchha!

 

Well, the so-called "Barfußpfade" (barefoot walking paths) and parks furnished for trying out barefooting on different surfaces aren't limited to Bavaria only... and - prepare for a culture shock - not all Germans wear Lederhosen!



Actually, people are reacting roughly the same way in any region of Germany.

Wiggling toes from the Ruhr,

~*Ganesha*~

 

Not sugesting for a second any kind of stereotype. I think it's wonderful that a Western culture embraces barefooting. Deutschland ueber....well, you know.

 

They actually originated from Bad Sobernheim west of the river Rhine (whereas true Bavarians with "Lederhosen" live south of the Danube). The barefoot parks spread out over Germany like a fairy ring of mushrooms and have now reached Austria, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, even Hungary and the UK. Elsewhere in the English-speaking world they seem not to exist. At least I do not find them when searching the web.

Does anyone in this forum know about barefoot trails in the "New World"?

Feel good and stay unshod,

Lorenz

 

In another thread I posted a little gallery of barefoot people in southern German cities and was asked in a personal mail, if the pics are really from normal urban life. Part of them are, and I thought, the answer would also fit here.

At least part of the pictures of the gallery http://www.barfusspark.info/en/cities/cities.htm show barefoot people on streets or central places, without connection to any barefoot event. Some were of Sep. 2009, when I visited Ulm ....



..... and Freiburg,



both on nice autumn days. Ulm has a water wading basin in a stream close to the center .....



...... and a neighboring playground, where almost all kids and many adults were barefoot. Apart from this, I saw six persons walking or cycling barefoot in the city of Ulm within a few hours. I roughly estimated a ratio of one barefooter by 500 in Ulm (apart from the playground) and of 1 by 1000 in Freiburg. The latter town has been often reported as barefoot-friendly.

I also saw some barefooters e.g. in Würzburg, in Munich (only few outside the Streetlife Festival event) and in some smaller towns. But I didn't see any in the cities of the northern half of Germany. Nevertheless you can also go barefoot in northern Germany without getting trouble.

Perhaps it could help the American barefooters, if the news of our German barefoot spa and park culture spread out? I hope, giving more information in Engish could inspire the newspapers to deal with this subject -- as the German press already does to a great extent

Therefore I did my best in translating parts of my German website and hope, American journalists will find this and use the chance to write nice articles about exotic things like barefoot parks or water wading in the cities.....

Does anyone have connections???

Feel good, live unshod,

Lorenz

 

Thanks a lot Barefoot Doctor, what you kindly and clearly explained makes sense. Now I understand much better why Germany is so open about barefooting. Wish more countries would follow this tendency.

 

quite amusingly I 'm mistaken for German by my fellow countrymen (several times i've heard the comment «he must be German» or «jeez you are wackier than a German» as a result of missing footwear, particularly during winter - It's more welcome than the usual 'he is the notorious local nutcase that goes around barefoot') , the last time that occurred exiting the theatre where i finally managed to watch 'Avatar'. Actually I find us Italians being way, way, waaaay wackier with our philistine attitude, hypocrisy and prissiness while in the other hand really shameful things are regarded as normal. I'd never step on a train without my ticket, because it's _wrong_ but i travel barefoot witout a problem. a lot of people i know, including professors of criminal Law from the university, law-and-order right wingers freaks who made a career in politics and on the other side common thugs, junkies or hobos would never dare to show up barefooted in a public place ... but find perfectly ok to steal the price of the ticket, because it is just plain that -a vile act of robbery. and this is just one of the many possible examples of how much breaking serious written and enforced rules of law is commonly held as socially acceptable here, at least when the inspector is not around (most times). Since both kinds of people , no matter the social differences, feel more comfortable with openly breaking the law and what's worse damaging a public service than with dumping shoes (even when they would like to do that) , I think that 1) if I am really nuts my nuttiness is more honorable than their common sense 2) i must start thinking seriously about liquidating all my earthly properties and leaving this pit o'shit before it starts sucking in. or shoes become mandatory to help the shoe manufacturers... lucky that mr. Berlusconi owns no shoe factories. but one can never tell.

 

Exactly!
I made the same point some time back, much to the bewilderment of many. Going barefoot is such a NOTHING thing to penalize (socially, psychologically) when there are true infractions being committed every day.