The German swimming badge in bronze is still widely called the Freischwimmer, the free swimmer. To earn it, a child must swim for 15 minutes, or at least 200 meters, dive, and jump from the starting block or the one-meter board. The badge is often the condition for going to the pool alone, without an adult. By June 2026 the leisure pool in Werl, in North Rhine-Westphalia, admitted children aged 7 to 11 alone only if they held the bronze badge. Children aged 12 and older could come without an adult. Non-swimmers could use only the non-swimmers’ pool. The Federal Association of German Swimming Masters wants children under 16 without the bronze badge to enter outdoor pools only with a parent. Its president, Peter Harzheim, called the debate a wake-up call to parents. The Green politician Schahina Gambir warned that such a rule could have an indirectly discriminatory effect.