The History of NaturismReferring to the article written by Gábor Klaniczay published in the book called “Chapters from the History of Sexuality”, the history of nudism starts by Adam and Eve.
For the ancient Greeks nudism was ordinary in their athletic centres. The precursors of the modern nudism appeared in the second half of the 19th century within the framework of the various different organisations that developed on the back of Rousseau’s works. Their main goal was to refuse to adhere to the conventional engagements of modern civilisation.
Hygiene and the need for regular body care was a significant outcome of the evolution of the civil societies. The atmospheric cure campaign - started in Austria in the second half of the 19th century - was a reaction to the metropolitan lifestyle, the polluted air and the damage to environment and health. The leader, Arnold Rickli first promoted the baths in the nature in open air and in the sun as medical treatment.
In the early 1980s the first proclamations of the nudist culture were published.
At the beginning of the 20th century, in America, a preacher called John Sharp published the Gospel of the Nudism.
In 1903 Paul Zimmermann on the seaside of the Baltic sea, next to city of Lübeck, established the first nudist centre named Freilich Park, the stem-cell of the actual nudist society. It was forbidden for the members of the association to consume meat or alcohol and to smoke: the goal was to train their body for different weather conditions.
The most famous apostle of the Freikörperkultur (FKK – Freunde der Freikörper Kultur, in English: the Friends of the Free Body Culture) was called Richard Ungewitter who organised the first nudist association on a significant scale.
Ungewitter wrote his first brochure in 1903 under the title of ‘People should again be naked’ and then he published his book ‘Nudism from the Perspective of History, Healthcare, Morality, and Art. He did not find a publisher for his book and finally printed, reproduced and distributed it at on its own expense. Both became bestsellers in the Germany of the early 20th century.
In 1906 Ungewitter created the German Nudo-Naturist Association, and founded various other groups. Its association became popular after the 1st World War in particular when it was associated with the atmosphere of revolution, the campaigns for the emancipation of women and the radical changes in clothing in the early 20s. On the basis of the German nudist alliance, the French, English and American nudists also become alive.
In the United States of America the first nudist organisations were founded by German immigrants; then a protestant priest, Isley Boone became the leader of the nudist alliance. In 1953 Boone organised an international nudist conference, which resulted in the establishment of the first association of American nudists, the American Sunbathing Association (ASA).
In spite of all this, the international organisation of nudism, the FNI, was founded by English nudists in 1951 near to London in the framework of a nudist festival. They prepared the internal regulation which was accepted by 22 international federations in the subsequent years. The FNI now holds an international congress in every two years.
Subsequent to this, nudism became a respected organisation in most civil countries, their rights to gather together on their fields and, regardless of their gender to be naked were recognised.
t the beginning of the 70s the absurd sanction of pornographic offence in regard of those who where sunbathing naked or half naked on different beaches was finally abolished in most of the European counties and in the United States of America. Among the countries in the Eastern European bloc nudism was accepted in the German Democratic Republic, Romania and Poland. | 
