Instead of hearing splashing noises from swimming, visitors now hear the rhymes of poetry slammers and musical sounds in the art nouveau bath in Friedberg. After the swimming pool closed in 1980, it stood vacant, until two pensioners appropriated it in 2007. Via a volunteer limited liability company, they helped restore it to its former glory – not as a swimming pool, however, but as a rural cultural centre. Now residents don’t have to drive 40 kilometres to Frankfurt to listen to readings or concerts, but can experience them right where they live. And they can welcome other guests from the Friedberg region as well.