The World’s Most Primitive Colony.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 17, 26 October 1910, Page 33

The World’s Most Primitive Colony.

ZURICH. August 27, 1910. TRAVELLERS in Europe tins summer have been badly jarred by the vagaries of the weather. Even the mildest mannered globe-trotter, passing through the tourist centres, has agreed that the August conditions have been "queer.” Only in one small section of Switzerland have the residents gone through heat wave, snowstorm and northern blast with impartial calmness. And, strange to say, these stoics were more exposed to th" atmosphere than any civilised beings I have ever met. It was quite by chance that I stumbled across this remarkable colony of exponents of the simple life. The name of the colony is the “Lichluftheim’ (Light and air home) and it is located on the Waidberg, overlooking the town of Zuri di. While in the town 1 heard reports of the thoroughness of the methods by which the residents in the Waidberg institution get right back to nature, so I decided to make arrangements for a closer study. I knew of several places in Germany. Austria and Switzerland where nakedness and the tonic gifts of sun. light and air were cardinal rules of life, but in each of them there were restrictions. The votaries of the primitive were railed in, so to speak, away from the public gaze, dieted by the doctor and, in short, treated as patients In a sanatorium. But at Waidberg it is otherwise. There the followers of Nature can roam ov»r hill and dale swim lakes and rivers and disport themselves at will in a state of almost complete nudity for many miles around. To my surprise I found the people of Zurich, though they have their prude societies, regarded the Waidbergers merely as local curiosities. They showed no desire for the imposition of restrictions. On telephoning to the head of the colony. Herr J. P. Muller, formerly an officer in the Danish army, I received a cordial invitation to go up and see for myself. The automobile zigzagged up the steep slopes of the Waidberg and in an hour or so the driver deposited me at the

THE CULT OF NUDITY.

entrance of a large pine forest, explaining he could not take his car further as the road from this point was very bad. 1 found later he was right; the road had degenerated into a mere mountain path, covered with boulders. It wound through the forest till half a mile higher up. it ended at the light and air home. It was a sunny day when I left the car on my climb hut no rays penetrated tin* dense pines as 1 ascended. I was beginning to feel cold when I arrived at a clearing in the forest and a startling sight met my gaze. A tall, splendidly built man, wearing only a bathing slip, his brown, sun-tanned skin glistening in the sun. was advancing towards me over the rough path, in his bare feet. The white “savage” came on with long, quick strides, ami before I had recovered from my astonishment he was holding my hand and bidding me welcome to his establishment in excellent English. For the “savage” was Herr Muller himself, who had come down the mountain to meet me. He saw my embarrassment and smiled, playfully remarking that he would not do me harm, and excusing himself for receiving me in his “air costume,” as he had just been playing with his friends. Herr Muller is a splendidly built man about six feet tall, showing the muscles of a boxer rather than a wrestler, tanned a dark brown from head to foot. He has an intelligent face and laughingeyes. Carl Block, the famous painter, described him as “physically the most perfect man T have ever seen,’’ and I agreed with the description as I watched my companion striding along beside me. “Come along,” said he, “you* will find all my friends at play.” Presently we passed a large meadow where a score of Waidbergers —men, women and children —were engaged in a game of hand ball, while others stood round as spectators. The men and boys only wore bathing pante; the women and girls were “dressed” in a short, single, loose decollete chemise—their sole garment—and

the children were naked, while all dispensed with head and foot gear. I was assured that the members of the simple life colony wore no other clothes during their stay at Waidberg.

as exposure to sun and air was essential to harden the skin of every part of the body. We passed through a rustic gate and entered a wooden bungalow, the principal building, which serves as the restaurant and in rainy weather is also the meeting place of the residents. The windows of the restaurant are always open and moreover the roof of the building is fixed a foot higher than the walls so as to allow the air to enter freely under the eaves, day and night. A long wooden table with benches stretches down the middle of the restaurant, and a few chairs and cupboards complete the furniture of the spotless room. A small garden separates the bungalow from the dozen or so of “air huts,” which are built in a row on piles, and are open in tyont as well as under the eaves is in the bungalow. The “air hubs,” which are detached ami are alike in size and appearance, eon tain one room. 15 feet by 10 feet, and a small verandah. They cost very little to construct, for then l is plenty of wool in the vicinity of Waidberg. The furniture of a. typical bedroom of an iron bedstead, a hard mattress, two sheets, no pillow, a wooden table and a chair. The walls and floor are bare. An austere monk would be satisfied with such a room, but several of the Waidbergers find them too “stully” and sleep on a mattress in the verandah when it does not rain. If an ordinary person were to pass a night in one of the air huts he would probably be half frozen by the morning as there is no protection whatever against tin* cold and wind, and tin* only stove in the colony is in tin* kitchen! Bound about are a series of kitchen, llower ami fruit gardens, which supply most of the wants of the residents, wlm are vegetarians and teetotalers. Endos ing the gardens .ire lawns and meadows stretching to the edge of the pine for est. In a corner of the groundts, shut off by means of a wooden partition, art the water and sun baths, each with sep arate compartments for men and women

There the sun worshippers lie quite naked on little wooden benches and lounge chairs, sometimes for whole days together, tanning their entire bodies. Brown is the fashionable skin colour with them. This is the most painfu' but obligatory part of the life, and the women are naturally the greatest sufferers, but all bear the ordeal cheerfully after a while. But though I found the place interesting, the inmates were even more so. I was fully prepared to meet a fanatical set of freaks. I really met educated, refined men and women with a wide anil cultured outlook on life. I am pledged to secrecy as to names —the only condi tion imposed upon me-—but 1 may men tion that the diplomatic, military, and social circles of several European capi t ils were well represented in the colony. All are on exactly the same footing at Waidberg. All titles are dropped. Mr., Mrs, and Miss are alone employed. Money is of no consequence, for the greatest spendthrift could not spend half a-erown a day in that forest retreat. The only assets which count are physical advantages. I asked in surprise, “Why do these people, used to the luxuries and comforts of life, take up such austere conditions?” The answer came from an old diplomat who retired from service at the age of 55, -and for the last three years has been a member of the colony. "What would you. Monsieur? When you have tasted all the pleasures and frivolities of life and found them only froth, and tasting deeper, you come down to the drugs of the wine—no sincerity, no love, no natural feelings, but simply artificiality—a time comes when you wish to taste nature herself and her simple joys.” “But,” I objected, “many members of the colony are young people who could’ not have had much experience of life as you had.” “The better for them. They start life with a great advantage. They are studying life from Nature herself—the only happy life. I sometimes envy them because I ‘started life,’ as you say, too late.” The members of the colony held that “Naked we wore born into the world, and therefore Nature has intended we should go through life naked as far as climate*

will allow.” Clothing, according to the Waidbergers, i-s the outward sign of the illhealth, immodesty, and deterioration of the present generation. The skin, ■they say, is the natural clothing, and as

one of the most important organs of the body it should be exercised and cared for in the open air and not hidden and choked under a packing of clothing. The ordinary person, who tries to show as little skin as possible, is, in their view, the slave of a foolish fashion, which causes many diseases, especially consumption. The Waidberger rises at sunrise, and * before taking a bath goes through a

number of exercises, whereby the body becomes thoroughly warmed and prepares! to enter the cold tub. After that he has another course of exercises, producing a feeling of great physical com-

fort. Slipping on his “costume” he is now ready for his morning stroll across the meadows and fields or among the scented pines. The peasants living in the vicinity of Waidberg have become so used to the “naked people,” as they call them, wandering about the country, that they take no notice of them, though they once protested to the Zurich authorities without avail. After a ramble of a couple of hours the Waidberger returns home with a razor-edged appetite for breakfast, which consists of coffee, milk, rolls, butter, fruit and berries. No fish or meat is

served. The morning is spent in reading, writing, study, playing games in the open or taking sun baths. At noon lunch is served in the bungalow. After breakfast there are only two meals a

day—at noon, the principal meal, and at six o’clock, which is really tea. In the afternoon there are gymnastics and athletic sports of all kinds, and, when the weather is fine, a bathing excursion is arranged to the little lake of Katzensee, a few miles away, or a picnic party to a quiet spot in the forest. At nightfall the Waidbergers return to their huts, and after a light meal are glad to get to their beds, tired out. Within a few conditions they are at liberty to do as they please at Waidberg and leave or enter the colony when they wish. Sometimes society people only

stay a summer, but most of the colonists are fixtures. A famous Parisian actress has spent the summer there and says the experience has been worth a fortune to her. Waidberg is not a hotel or a pension. It is a simple life colony founded a dozen years ago by a sporting Swiss clergyman of wealth, whose widow, under the direction of Herr Muller, is carrying out the instructions of her husband. Herr Mui ler i<s himself a wealthy man who makes the study of the ills that flesh is heir to a life hobby. The ills he attributes to faulty conditions of life. His last words to me were, “If people would adopt primitive and regular habits of life, in close communion with Nature from their infancy, there is every likelihood they would live to well over a hundred veans.”