Are there free toilets in Germany?

Owen Jones (No one should have to pay to pee, 2 August) confuses two issues: the provision of toilets and their cost, especially given that “spend a penny” has its origins in the concept of paying to pee, and when it started a penny was quite a large sum.

It is, however, the need for toilets that can be used that truly matters. This issue is not limited to the UK, as it is very much a problem where I live in the Netherlands, too.

Having had surgery and radiotherapy that has drastically altered my control over my bladder, I am someone who plans going out around the availability of adequate access to toilets. This becomes a particularly complex matter when going on holiday. I was therefore pleased to learn about a German system called nette toilette.

A number of German towns and local authorities (now in excess of 270) have worked out that it is much cheaper to get someone else to provide toilets than to have to fund their construction, operation and maintenance themselves. A council thus pays shops, cafes, etc that have toilets if they make them available to people who are not customers. (They then display a sign on the shop door/window.) I note from the Wikipedia entry that this new system is reckoned to cost the city of Bremen €150,000 a year rather than €1.1m to provide WCs themselves.

I am also glad of another toilet-related development that you find more and more on this side of the Channel, namely the ability to pay at the turnstile of the WCs in stations and motorway services by using your bank card. Though those turnstile arrangements do tend to mean that you find that your wallet fills up with the little refund vouchers you get that you can spend in the associated cafes and shops.
John Morris
The Hague, Netherlands

Exeter city council – marketing mantra: “Live Better” – has just closed 15 of its 26 public toilets. The endless sloganeering and vacuous manifesto-speak (“We want the narrative to be owned by individuals and organisations committed to playing a full part in the promotion of the city”) take no account of the real and sometimes pressing needs so well described by Owen Jones. The “narrative” is selective. Those who protested were ignored.
Peter Kaan
Exeter

Join the debate – email

Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

Restrooms

Public restrooms are found in large cities, although you are not guaranteed to find one in an emergency. If you are in need, there are several options. You can enter the next café or restaurant and ask very politely to use the facilities. You can find a department store and look for the "WC" sign. Museums are also a good place to find facilities.

Train stations are increasingly turning to McClean, a privately run enterprise that demands €0.60 to €1.10 for admission to its restrooms. These facilities, staffed by attendants who clean almost constantly, sparkle. You won't find them in smaller stations, however. Their restrooms are usually adequate.

On the highways, the vast majority of gas stations have public restrooms, though you may have to ask for a key—we won't vouch for their cleanliness. You might want to wait until you see a sign for a restaurant.

Restrooms almost always cost money. It's customary to pay €0.20–€0.70 to the bathroom attendant.

Previous Travel Tip

Passports and Visas

Berlin needs to fix its undignified public toilet situation.

Declaration of love on a robo-WC on Helmholtzplatz in Prenzlauer Berg.imago/R.Price

Berlin-It's summer and they're back: in the parks, in roadside bushes, next to the playground: scrunched up little balls of toilet paper.

The amount of peeing and pooping in public spaces in Berlin increases with the temperature. It's a miserable use of green space, not just for aesthetic reasons. It's a matter of human rights.

“Human dignity is inviolable. It is the duty of all state authorities to respect and protect it.”

Okay, maybe I'm overdoing by bringing up the first line of the German constitution. Nevertheless, the toilet situation in Berlin - and everywhere in Germany - is undignified.

Berlin's idea of a public toilet.imago

No, I'm not talking about the shelf toilets that you still see in homes across this country, where one is directly confronted with their excretions. Having previously lived in English-speaking countries, I found this kind of toilet bizarre and slightly traumatising when I first encountered it 20 years ago.

No, I'm talking about the fact that there are hardly any public toilets in Berlin and Germany. And for the ones that there are, you have to pay. Like the Tardis-esque robo-WCs operated by the advertising firm Wall you see around town. Using them is usually a pleasant enough experience. If they're not out of order, you find them in relatively clean condition.

Men free, women €0.50

During your stay, you can enjoy some elevator music and marvel at German technology at work. But the fact that you have to pay for it, even if it's only 50 cents, I find undignified - and just plain stingy on the part of the state. On weekends, long queues of women form in front of the pay toilets - while men pee in the bushes or in the free-of-charge urinals that are part of the new Wall toilets.

This is not what gender equality looks like.

In the mid-19th century, the first public toilets for women were built in London. Until then, women living in Europe's cities rarely ventured further than where family and friends lived. Historians called this the "urine leash", as women could only go as far as their bladders would allow them. Of course, we're further along today. But in 2021, no one should feel compelled to pee or crap behind a bush because they don't have the correct change on them.

Here today, flushed tomorrow

Last year there was a sign of hope near my flat, in the new section of Mauerpark. For some inexplicable reason, a toilet trailer, like the ones you find at festivals, was set up. Here, we were allowed to use a clean toilet and wash our hands for free - as is completely normal in many other world cities. Was this the dawn of a new era in German hygiene history?

In spring, the trailer disappeared without a trace. Sigh.

The situation in autobahn rest stops, train stations, shopping centres, department stores and even in some clubs is similarly dire. Can the luxury department store KaDeWe really not afford a free customer toilet?

Thank god for gratispinkeln.de, which has a map all the free toilets in Berlin, like in the ground floor at the Humboldt University (Unter den Linden) or at the Modulor store on Moritzplatz in Kreuzberg.

Berlin, it's time you joined the civilised world. Free the toilets!

Berlin news in English.

Why do you have to pay for the toilet in Germany?

Does Germany have public bathrooms?

Do Europeans have to pay for toilets?

Do you have to pay for public toilets in Berlin?