Stadtbad Steglitz

The Stadtbad Steglitz stands in Berlin’s Steglitz district as a protected cultural monument. Built at the start of the 20th century, the public bathhouse once offered swimming and bathing for a fast-growing suburb where most flats lacked baths or showers. Architects Richard Blunck and Ferdinand Münzenberger designed a grand hall combining church-like spaces with Roman-style thermae in historicist and art-nouveau styles. The complex opened in stages from 1906, beginning with a Russian-style steam bath and followed in 1908 by the main swimming hall, hailed as Prussia’s largest and most modern health-and-bathing department. A four-storey extension along Bergstraße, designed by Fritz Freymüller between 1928 and 1931, housed the baths office, a barber and flats above. After wartime damage and later restorations, the hall closed for good in 2002 when running costs could no longer be covered. Inside the vast hall, a 21-metre tiled pool with a separate shallow area once filled the centre. Rounded at one end, the deep section reached 2.8 metres and was guarded by metal railings. White-tiled changing cabins lined the sides, each pair of supporting concrete columns spaced about five metres apart. The floor around the pool used white and dark grey rectangular tiles in a loose chequerboard pattern. At the far end, a semi-dome apse with copper roofing and small round windows capped the space, while the ornate art-nouveau entrance bore the word ‘Stadtbad’ and a relief of a Berlin bear.