Sommerbad Kreuzberg

The Prinzenbad is a public open-air swimming pool in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. It stands beside the Prinzenstraße, within sight of the elevated U-Bahn station of the same name on lines U1 and U3. The pool belongs to the city’s public baths service. The bath opened in 1956 on the site of a former gasworks. In the late 1970s high soil pollution forced a costly clean-up that cost more than thirty million marks. A second major renovation in 1984 rebuilt the buildings and pools and removed the diving stages. Today it draws up to nine thousand visitors a day in summer and recorded 330 000 guests in 2018. A private security team and free entry for police officers form part of its safety plan. Inside the grounds are two main pools, each fifty metres long, one twenty-one metres wide and the other sixteen. Depths range from 1.90 to 3.55 metres. A large shallow non-swimmer pool covers 1 600 square metres, and there is a paddling pool plus a children’s playground with its own splash area. Wheelchair access reaches the poolside, and a ramp has been added to the non-swimmer pool. The entrance area offers parking close by.