Heinrich-Völker-Bad, Public swimming complex in Worms, Germany
Heinrich-Völker-Bad is a combined indoor and outdoor swimming complex in Worms, the largest in the city. Its indoor hall holds a 25-metre pool with a diving tower and a non-swimmers' area, while the outdoor grounds contain a 50-metre competition pool, a 10-metre diving tower, a baby pool and a heated outdoor pool. The street-facing building stands on stilts directly on the Alzeyer Straße.
A "Hallenbad-Bau-Verein" founded in 1936 first planned an indoor pool, but World War II shelved the scheme. From 1961 mayor Heinrich Völker, in office 1949–1967, pushed the plans again; the pool opened on 20 November 1965, praised by swimming official Karl Schubert as a most modern sports venue. The outdoor area followed on 19 May 1982.
The bath is named after Heinrich Völker, mayor of Worms from 1949 to 1967, who pushed from 1961 for a municipal indoor pool. The city runs it despite annual losses, and since 2007 a dome over the 50-metre outdoor pool keeps school swimming lessons going through winter.
The indoor hall on Alzeyer Straße holds the 25-metre pool with diving tower and non-swimmers' area, while the outdoor grounds hold the 50-metre competition pool, a 10-metre diving tower, a baby pool and a warm outdoor pool. Since 2007 a inflatable hall covers the 50-metre pool each winter so that Worms schools can keep their swimming lessons. The sauna in the basement closed on 3 July 2016 for fire-safety reasons.
Since 2007, a pneumatic hall is erected each winter over the 50-metre outdoor pool so that Worms schools can keep holding swimming lessons; several schools had stopped running their own pools. The city invested around nine million euros in the 1996–1998 expansion, which doubled visitors to 130,000.
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