"Schneiders glasses"

Unisex toilets

A toilet for all genders - a crazy idea, at least according to "Krone" columnist Robert Scheider.(Bild: Martin A. Jöchl)

Berlin's Pergamon Museum will only have unisex toilets in future. "Krone" columnist Robert Schneider is not at all happy with this idea. 

In future, there will only be one toilet in Berlin. I have to clarify that: In the famous Pergamon Museum, there should only be one toilet, for men and women and all the other 73 genders that currently exist in the world as of May 2024. New ones are added every month. The aim is to "break down the binary division into men's and women's toilets", announced the management of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. In other words, one toilet for everyone. As the Pergamon Museum is currently closed, there is no danger ahead. It is being renovated and is due to reopen fully in 2037 at the earliest, reports Der Spiegel. However, the renovation could take until 2043.

"The costs (...) were initially estimated at 385 million euros, the latest estimate is up to 1.5 billion euros (...)", according to the German news magazine. The new "All Gender Restroom" only costs a mere 2.2 million euros. Presumably the toilet door will then be completely covered with pictograms or none at all, because in 2043 there will no longer be any gender at all.

There is one good thing about Berlin's crazy idea. In future, I will no longer have to feel ashamed if I mistakenly enter the wrong toilet as a man. I can then justifiably say: "Don't look at me like that!" How the National Museums will deal with unpleasant come-ons, however, is not yet clear to me. The museum management is firmly convinced that this is "the implementation of a social mission". They are convinced that unisex toilets will become mandatory anyway. There is still time until 2043, so perhaps the costs are only exploding because the Pergamon Museum is already reserving a budget for possible lawsuits due to sexual assault in its new toilets with a "social mission".