Dark creatures in the Elbe swimming pool (nd-aktuell.de)

As a child, I learned to swim in the Elbe swimming pool in Magdeburg. Built a few years before I was born, it was one of the largest in the GDR, with a diving board, competition grandstand, diving pool and wall mosaic. The hall roared with the instructions of the swimming instructors and the shrieks of the children. The large window front with a view of the still bare city, cleared after the last destruction, let in the mild winter light, we were freezing at the edge of the pool.

I especially remember the awful moment when we were supposed to jump from the starting block into the pool one after the other. To this day I can’t let myself tip down. Never became a competitive swimmer or lifeguard. Went swimming, diving anyway. It burned when I swam under the others with my eyes open and suddenly appeared at the end of the group.

More than 40 years later I dream of the Elbe swimming pool. I recognize her immediately. It is a light-flooded swimming scenario that takes place on two levels. Another transparent glass tub hangs over the 50-meter pool, again just as big. Suddenly I’m up there, swimming breaststroke and see through the thick pane how deep below me children are learning to swim, swimming their excited laps. The cheering shouts of the swimming instructors penetrate the high space where I am with a handful of swimmers, meanwhile floating on my back. It is wonderful.

Before a feeling of happiness can spread through me, I perceive a dark shadow approaching from the side. Eyeing underwater, I see a shark darting toward me with swinging motions. From the right, I only now notice that a second one is already close, just opening its mouth. I open my mouth too, wanting to scream. Look through the glass floor at the people below me, who happily carry on. My swimming buddies on the same level are gone and the sharks are with me at the same time.

That has to be compared with reality, I think to myself, and when I recently visited my hometown, I entered the Elbe swimming pool. Everything is different and yet similar. At the beginning of the 2000s, the swimming pool was completely renovated and modernized. The swimmers from SC Magdeburg and the athletes from the water polo union train here, as I can see from the signs in the foyer. Changing in the basement, complicated route through a stairwell – suddenly I’m standing in the hall. It’s still large, the mosaic a little paler, and the mild winter light falls through the window front. The left side is separated for the athletes who are furrowing their lanes this week morning.

I choose the second from the right and start my 200 meter breaststroke. At the end of the pool I choke. Far below me, black beings roam the ground. One lies down, rolls happily on its back, another rolls forward. The third looks up while the fourth circles and waves its fins. Bubbles rise. Coughing on the groove, I see a man in the pool in front of the spectator stand, wearing a black diving suit and goggles, splashing in the water. He oversees the turmoil down there and helps the divers out when I’m done with my laps. They pack up, I read “Bördekapital Tauchgruppe” on their shirts. Everything is in order.

Later I’m sitting in the innards of the bath in the sauna and grinning, a woman asks: “It’s nice here, isn’t it?” Now: Yes.

You can read all the texts of our nd swimming column here.