Sauna-voyeur case sparks push to close legal loophole in Germany
Petition calls for stronger protections against secret nude recordings
A new petition in Germany is drawing national attention to a legal gap that leaves people vulnerable to being secretly filmed while nude in saunas and public showers. Launched by Rebecca and Anne, the two women at the center of the case, the campaign urges lawmakers to amend § 201a of the German Criminal Code, or create a new provision entirely, to criminalize non-consensual nude recordings in semi-public nudity settings.
Their petition, hosted on innn.it and now signed by more than 30,000 people, began after the pair discovered they had been covertly filmed while naked in a sauna earlier this year. According to their account, the man who recorded them admitted to the act, and police seized his phone, which reportedly contained recordings of other nude women as well. But weeks later, prosecutors closed the case. The reason stunned them: under current law, a sauna does not qualify as a “protected space.”
That limitation stems from § 201a StGB, which prohibits unauthorized recordings that violate a person’s intimate privacy—but restricts that protection to places courts define as private, controlled, and shielded from outside view. Despite the deeply personal nature of nudity in German sauna culture, wellness facilities often fall outside that definition. As a result, voyeuristic filming may be morally outrageous yet still fall through the cracks of current law.
The case has sparked broader debate about whether Germany’s intimate-image regulations reflect the world we live in, where every phone is a camera and every recording is potentially permanent. Many advocates argue that spaces where social nudity is expected — from saunas to public showers — deserve explicit legal recognition as environments where people have a right to bodily privacy.
Rebecca and Anne’s petition calls on Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig to close this gap before more people are harmed by ambiguous protections that undermine trust in spaces where nudity is normal. You can read and support the petition here:
For millions of people in Germany, saunas are part of everyday life. If the law doesn’t acknowledge the privacy people expect there, the harm could absolutely go far beyond this one case. Clear protections would go a long way toward restoring confidence in a culture built on comfort, respect, and normalizing nonsexual nudity. 🪐
