• On May 1, it's traditionally time to open the gates at Hangeweiher! The outdoor pool season enters its second and final interim summer.
• Milestone reached: Bathroom manager Torsten Liebl was able to move back into his new official apartment on site in mid-April.
• New ticket machines will soon make card payment possible.

The pool manager is back! In mid-April, Torsten Liebl was able to move into his new official apartment on the Hangeweiher site. An important milestone has thus been reached. "It makes the work processes in the busy outdoor pool season so much easier when I can be on site again," said Liebl with relief. He and his team are looking forward to getting started again on May 1, 2025. Aachen's only outdoor pool, Hangeweiher, traditionally opens its gates punctually at 6.30 a.m. and welcomes the first early swimmers. Meanwhile, construction work will continue in parallel during the 2025 season - the second and final interim summer with container solutions is imminent. The concept proved its worth last year. The response from guests was remarkable: 112,741 visitors flocked to the south of Aachen to jump into the cool water.

Tickets in the webshop

What else is new at the outdoor pool? How is the further work progressing? Petra Prömpler and Claudia Braxein from the City of Aachen's Sports Department as well as Frank Schneiderwind and Petra Pade from the municipal building management department together with pool manager Liebl provided information on this during a press event on Thursday (April 24). As in 2024, the interim containers for showers, changing rooms, lockers, staff and materials will also be used this season, as the new building has not yet been completed. The old ticket office will be used for the last time in the 2025 season. Two ticket machines will be installed soon, which will also accept card payments. Those responsible ask that plenty of use be made of these. After all, cashless payment simplifies and speeds up the entry process - especially on hot summer days when many thousands of people visit the outdoor pool. The city also draws attention to the ticket webshop: https://ticket-baeder.aachen.de/. Buying tickets in advance can also speed up access to the outdoor pool.

Another new feature is a large turnstile as an exit to the park. This turnstile also makes it possible to exit with a wheelchair, pushchair or handcart.

Top priority: Opening Aachen's only outdoor pool

All those responsible emphasized on site: the top priority in the organization of the construction work was and is the goal that the 2025 outdoor pool season - as in the previous year - can run completely and with as few restrictions as possible despite the major renovation measures. This means that the Hangeweiher outdoor pool will be open from May 1 until September 14, 2025 at the latest, with the containers having to be cleared and prepared for removal from the following day in the autumn. Opening hours range from early in the morning until well into the evening, based on sunrise and sunset, seven days a week. Petra Prömpler, Head of the Sports Department: "In order to be able to offer well-supervised, safe leisure activities in Aachen's only outdoor pool on such a large scale, there is a very high demand for personnel. Numerous temporary staff have been found in a number of procedures. However, due to the shortage of skilled staff, this is not enough and staff support from the indoor swimming pools is required. For this reason, the opening hours in the halls have been adjusted during the open water season."

Meanwhile, construction work on the new building is on schedule. The entrance area and the outdoor pool area are separated from the construction site by a wooden fence. "The finishing work on the first floor, the outdoor facilities along the road and at the exit to the park and the construction of the new ticket office are currently underway. The buildings will be completed in the course of the outdoor pool season," assured Petra Pade, architect and responsible project manager at the municipal building management department. After the outdoor pool season, a new access road will be built in the area of the old ticket office after it has been dismantled so that the interim building can be dismantled, including the earthworks. Only then can the so-called energy roof be erected, which will cover the reorganized entrance and ticket office area and the fresh air changing rooms with lockers. The outdoor facilities will be prepared before the opening for the 2026 season.

A wooden façade for the new building

The solid construction building will have a wooden façade, aluminum windows and green roofs. The energy roof spanning the fresh air changing rooms and the cash desk area is planned as a glass roof with translucent photovoltaic modules. The city is investing 6.86 million euros in the entire new complex - a design by Kaiser Schweitzer Architekten from Aachen. The city has secured 1.48 million euros for the new building from the federal program "Renovation of municipal facilities in the areas of sport, youth and culture". Over the past few years, the technology and pools of the outdoor pool have already been renovated in two stages. The new building is the third and final renovation phase.

Parking facilities for outdoor pool visitors

In order to allow visitors to the outdoor pool to park on foot again at the start of the season, there will be a parking time restriction in the Hangeweiher parking lot on Hermann-Löns-Allee in future. The parking lot is currently often full to capacity. Therefore, from May onwards, a maximum parking time of four hours (with a parking disk) will be permitted in the parking lot on weekdays between 7 am and 9 pm.

Information and tickets

Information on the opening hours of the indoor and outdoor swimming pools: www.aachen.de/schwimmen

Short-term changes can be found on the sports pages under News: www.aachen.de/sport