The light and air bath in Frankfurt-Niederrad was opened in 1900 as a public lido and river swimming pool. The headland on which the bath is located was built at the end of the 19th century with the construction of the Niederrad lock. In the early 2000s, the entire park was redesigned.
The Café LILU 1, which is designed as a pontoon, provides for the physical well-being: in the event of flooding, the pontoon anchored to high bollards floats on the water, but remains at its location.
The Main Island was created by the construction of the first locks on the Main. To open Frankfurt from the Rhine with larger ships, from 1883 five locks and the Westhafen were built. In 1900, a river swimming pool was opened on the island, which served the population, mostly working-class families, for physical recovery from hard labor. In the area of the Main, calmed down by a needle weir, we were able to swim without worries. The main island was developed as a lido with cloakroom, changing rooms, kiosks, play and gymnastics area and three separate in the Main swimming pool. From various Frankfurt beach baths it was the most popular.
In the course of the further deepening of the Main in the early 1930s, the Niederräder lock was unnecessary and a part of the eastern access road, the current area of NU2, spilled. This created a tranquil basin. Today there is a houseboat there.
At the time of National Socialism, from 1936 until November 1938, the island was the last public bath open to Jewish children, women and men in Frankfurt. After that, Jews were prohibited from bathing in Frankfurt. On May 25, 1939, the bathroom was taken over by the SA.
In the mid-1950s, the swimming pool was renamed Light and Air Bath because the Main was so polluted that swimming was forbidden. Even if the water quality is considered good today, there is not a single river swimming pool on the Main. The light and air bath experienced many changes due to operator change, ideas of use and conversions. Most recently, in 2003, the floatable pontoon LILU was built for the catering of the guests and in 2011 a landscape architectural layout of the area, with new bridges and connection to NU2.