mermaid in real life enjoying the sun on a beautiful beach

What Happens When Mermaids Appear at the Mall?

Mermaiding in Germany is making waves—and a summer of professional mermaid performances at the RNZ Dive Hub shows just how far the scene has come. Join MerMapp founder Corinna as she meets Andrea Schneider and the Mermaids United & Mermaids Wolfsburg team, discovers the surprising realities behind performing in a glass tank, and explores how mermaiding, freediving and scuba diving are helping this once-niche community swim into the mainstream.

Corinna Schwozer

8/5/20267 min read

Germany may be arriving later to the mermaiding wave than countries such as the US and China—but this summer, a glass tank outside a shopping centre showed just how quickly things are changing.

My husband and I drove for an hour and a half through the sweltering heat of southern Germany to see some mermaids.

Yes, we know how that sounds.

Then again, I am a mermaid, my husband is a triton, and together we created MerMapp to connect the worldwide mermaid community. While other couples might spend their weekend visiting a castle or hunting down the perfect regional sausage, we follow the fins.

Our destination was the Rhein-Neckar-Zentrum in Viernheim, near Mannheim.

Not an aquarium. Not a fantasy convention. Not even a swimming pool.

A shopping centre.

Outside the mall stood a 6.5-metre-long, glass-sided diving tank. Inside, mermaids glided past the windows, waved to children and posed for cameras. People who had probably only planned to buy shoes or groceries suddenly found themselves face-to-face with a real-life mermaid.

And that is exactly why this event mattered.

A German mermaiding first

Southern Germany was hot.

Not pleasant, sit-under-a-tree-with-an-ice-cream hot. It was the type of heat that made the air feel thick, the car seats mildly hostile and every body of water look like paradise.

Naturally, the mermaid tank had its own summer drama.

The container could be heated. (Which already is quite the luxury and merits kudos to Tauchernet who have prepped the tank and kept it in great conditions over these summer months).

What it could not do—at least not easily—was cool itself down again.

On one occasion, the very friendly and inviting representative of Tauchernet told us, the water was accidentally heated to around 33°C.

Thirty-three degrees may sound lovely when you are picturing a relaxing bath. It becomes less appealing when you are expected to swim energetically, hold your breath and perform underwater while looking freshly emerged from a magical lagoon.

The tank had effectively become mermaid soup.

With no giant cooling switch available, some of the warm water had to be drained and replaced before the performers could comfortably swim again.

From the audience’s side of the glass, you see shimmering tails and floating hair.

Behind the scenes, someone may be desperately trying to stop the mermaids from being gently poached.

“She waved at me!”—or did she?

The temperature was not the only challenge.

Watching through the windows, it seemed as though the performers could see everything outside. A child waved, and a mermaid waved back. Someone raised a phone, and she turned toward the camera at just the right moment.

Easy, right?

Not quite.

Andrea explained that reflections, daylight and water movement often made it difficult to see individual faces through the glass. The mers might notice movement without knowing exactly who was moving.

Yet every child outside should feel as though the mermaid has noticed them personally.

So the performers improvise—waving across different parts of the window, blowing bubbles, following silhouettes and suddenly “discovering” the spectators.

The child thinks, “She saw me!”

The mermaid may be thinking, “I sincerely hope somebody is actually standing there.”

All the while, she is controlling her breath, navigating with both legs enclosed in a tail and planning her return to the surface.

It looks effortless because she has spent years learning how to hide the effort.

Different fins, one ocean

One of the loveliest things about the Dive Hub is seeing mermaiding, scuba diving and freediving support one another.

They are different disciplines. One may focus on tanks and equipment, another on a single breath, and another on creating the illusion that humans have always had tails.

But underneath it all lies the same love: water, movement, nature and the ocean.

Winning someone over to diving, freediving or mermaiding is not a competition between the three. It is a win for all of them.

The more closely people connect with the underwater world, the more likely they are to understand why it deserves protection—and the more opportunities we create to connect with one another beyond our everyday bubbles.

Throughout the summer, the RNZ Dive Hub has combined introductory scuba diving, underwater photography, demonstrations and recurring mermaid performances.

The shows were organised with Andrea Schneider, founder of Mermaids Wolfsburg and Mermaids United and one of the people working hardest to establish mermaiding in Germany.

Andrea told me that the project represented a first for the German scene: never before had a complete team of mermaids been booked and paid to perform repeatedly at a public event of this kind.

Mermaids have appeared in German films, advertisements and private parties before. But an entire team being hired as recurring entertainment at a mainstream public venue? That was new.

And Andrea is visibly proud of the team behind it.

Because professional mermaiding involves rather more than pulling on a tail and looking pretty.

The mers performing at the RNZ bring years of experience, thousands of hours in the water and costumes that can cost thousands of euros. They train their breath control, swimming technique, facial expressions, underwater movement and ability to improvise—all while making it look as natural as flicking a fin.

On the weekend we visited, Andrea’s team was represented by Carina Breer, also known as Mermaid Aquarina, Daniela Rodler, better known as Munich Mermaid or Münchens Nixe, and Sarah, the mermaid known as @waterflow_with_you. Carina is an advanced freediver and professional underwater model who also designs costumes and creates mermaid tails. Daniela is an international mermaid pioneer specializing in film productions and live aquarium performances, who seamlessly combines acting with the art of advanced freediving. Sarah leads Mermaids Kassel and combines professional underwater performance with work as an internationally licensed mermaid instructor, advanced freediver and underwater model.

For the final performance weekend, Andrea herself will be joined by Marie-Lou, an actress whose performance skills bring character and storytelling into the water, and Allie DeSantis from the US, who came to mermaiding through circus and fire entertainment and has also worked as a Disney princess and professional mermaid performer. They'll also be joined by Dorothea “Thea” Greger, an advanced mermaid and freediver who became the second-highest-ranked German at the 2025 Merlympics; and Chrissi Loske, a professional mermaid and internationally active silicone-tail artist whose work has appeared in films, aquariums and live shows.

Together, they demonstrate exactly what Andrea is so proud of: an experienced and international team whose polished performances are built on years of training, specialist skills and dedication—not simply on putting on a beautiful tail. Andrea herself is an internationally licensed instructor, master freediver and underwater performer who became the first German participant at the 2023 China Mermaid Open Championship, where she received the Best Rookie award in the performance category.

The summer Germany became one enormous hot tub

See them—and try diving—this weekend

Friday, 7 August, and Saturday, 8 August, are the final full two-day weekend of recurring mermaid performances at the RNZ Dive Hub. The hub is open from 12:00 to 18:00, although the individual performance times may vary. A final mermaid closing event is also listed for 29 August.

Visitors aged 12 and over can also try scuba diving for a minimum donation of just €5. No previous diving experience is required, equipment is provided and advance registration is normally unnecessary.

For experienced divers, it is also a wonderfully unusual tank dive to add to the logbook—complete with a special stamp few dive travellers will already have.

Every euro goes to marine conservation. August’s donations support Ghost Diving Germany and its work removing abandoned fishing gear and underwater waste.

Andrea Schneider as mermaid in the ocean, Photographer: @pabloprietoslife; tail by @merchrissi_tails

@waterflow_with_you mermaid posing on RNZ tank in Mannheim/Germany

Corinna and Julio - the heads behind MerMapp - posing in front of the RNZ mermaid tank

In Germany, mermaiding is still often met with one of two reactions:

“That exists? Where can I try it?”

Or:

“Adults really do this?”

Yes. Adults really do this.

So do children, swimmers, freedivers, performers, photographers, tailmakers, instructors and ocean enthusiasts.

Germany is catching up with a movement that is already more visible in places such as the US and China. Across Europe, mermaiding is also becoming increasingly organised, with national competitions, common disciplines, scoring systems and international qualification structures.

Andrea now leads the development of the former Merlympics into national and international Mermaiding Championships, with events planned across several European countries.

Mermaiding is not an Olympic sport, and nobody should start polishing a gold medal just yet. But it is following a familiar path: first people participate, then they connect, organise and create rules—and eventually the unusual begins to feel normal.

That is also where MerMapp enters the story.

We created MerMapp because this world is much larger than most people realise, yet it remains scattered across social media pages and private groups.

Through MerMapp, event organisers can find experienced mermaid talent. Performers can showcase what they offer. Curious beginners can discover courses, events and mers nearby.

Sometimes you are searching for a professional team to transform a public event.

Sometimes you are only searching for your first merfriend.

Both matter.

Perhaps this is how mermaiding will become normal in Germany: not through one enormous announcement, but through many small moments.

A course at a local pool.

A national competition.

A professional team receiving proper payment.

A shopping trip interrupted by a mermaid.

Germany is still dipping its toes into this world—but the current is getting stronger.

We are finally catching the wave.

With fins and friendship,

Corinna
CEO and Co-Founder of MerMapp