In many towns pools are closing and course places are scarce – and yet a heartening figure has emerged at the water's edge. Around 100,000 people earned a swimming badge in Germany in 2025. According to the German Life Saving Association (DLRG), 96,471 exams for the bronze, silver and gold badges were passed – a slight rise on the 95,273 of the previous year, and a total the organisation has bettered only once in 20 years.
The result was driven above all by the advanced levels. Silver was earned by 31,280 people and gold by just over 20,168 – both more than in 2024. The bronze badge, better known as the „Freischwimmer“, held nearly steady at 45,030 exams (previous year: 45,283). It counts as the real proof of safe swimming: to pass it, you must swim for at least 15 minutes without stopping or holding on, changing your body position along the way.
Why it matters: safe swimming is not merely a leisure skill but a matter of survival. Every child who earns the Freischwimmer is better protected against drowning at the lake or the outdoor pool come summer. That the numbers are climbing despite crumbling facilities and long waiting lists is owed above all to the efforts of thousands of volunteer instructors.
But there is a flip side. DLRG president Ute Vogt cautions that the good figures must not obscure the fact „that too many children overall are not learning to swim.“ The association estimates that nearly 60 percent of pupils cannot swim safely by the end of fourth grade. For the Seepferdchen, the first step into the water, 53,660 badges were awarded in 2025 – around 4,000 fewer than the year before, though still well above the average of the past two decades.
As brakes, the DLRG names a shortage of water surfaces, pools in need of renovation, and waiting lists that have grown longer still. Volunteers, it says, can only partly offset these structural gaps. The upward trend, however, shows the effort pays off – and that more children than before are entering summer better prepared.