Schwimmhalle Finckensteinallee

I had a great swim here, yesterday. The lockers require a €1 coin and, at around 7 AM, the swim cost €3.50. They had 6 lanes in with maybe 4 or 5 swimmers in a lane. There were no slow / medium / fast lane designations, so a few spuds out there, but you can easily get past them in a 50m pool.

Amazing history to the pool. Great ’30s architecture.

This may be the most beautiful Olympic swimming pool in Germany, aside from the Olympia-Schwimmhalle in Munich. Built in 1938 for Hitler's military, the pool was co-opted by the Americans after the war. The original pool was finally restored in 2014. The architecture is wonderful; the swim hall is stunning.

The pool is 50m, ten lanes, deep, and cool. It is sometimes set up for short-course laps. It's not crazy busy because it is a little in the 'burbs so, if you're a visitor to Berlin, you have to take the S-Bahn or a taxi, but it's well within reach and worth the trip, just for the history. The locker rooms are typical German co-ed; the showers are new and up to the usual Berlin Bathing standards.

In Berlin, lap swimming etiquette is often "observed in the breach", but here the swimmers are better at lane usage, since the pool is totally dedicated to lap swimming and nothing else. There is usually an area for lazy swimming off to the side, but they give preference to swimming lanes. Parking in the neighborhood is easy.