The real run streak

GERMANY, 2004

German sex therapist Dr Peter Niehenke is considered by many of his patients to be a guru on all matters carnal, but it is his running exploits that have made him something of a celebrity in Germany. Niehenke loves a jog. He’s always out on the roads around his home in Freiburg, clocking up the miles and working on his stamina. The problem is Niehenke refuses to wear a stitch of clothing on his jaunts and it’s landed him in rather a lot of trouble with the German authorities over the years.

His conviction for indecent exposure in 2004 after stepping out starkers in a local Freiburg park was merely the latest in a long list of naked indiscretions, and every time he’s collared by the boys in blue it’s not long before the doctor is pulling on his trainers and pulling off his clothes once again. By 2004 he had amassed almost €2,500 in fines and made numerous court appearances.

Niehenke argues that jogging in the buff is ‘sexually liberating’ and insists there is no specific law that forbids a spot of naked perambulation. The judge in 2004, however, wasn’t having that and ruled that the ‘court does not support the defendant’s view that running naked in public is one of his civil rights’.

Many of the reports concerning the court case maintained Niehenke took to the streets in no more than his socks and trainers but one despatch had it that he actually ran with a nylon stocking over his genitals ‘to keep them warm’. It’s difficult to decide which would be the more disturbing sight – a fully naked sex therapist speeding past or one with a pair of tights strategically attached to his groin.