It was meant to be an outing for Black children in Berlin and their families, offering them an exclusive afternoon at an outdoor pool set up by a local theatre.

But the plans, slated for earlier this month, had to be scrapped after they were seized on by rightwing and conservative voices to whip up outrage, leaving organisers fending off racist emails and threats.

Berlin’s Volksbühne theatre said it had extended the invitation in hopes of dismantling some of the barriers that would normally keep these children away from the pool. While other groups had similarly been invited to use pool exclusively without incident, the idea of Black children enjoying a private afternoon at a public pool proved to be controversial among some.

“Berlin is a livable, diverse, colourful and free city. So why do we need safe spaces?” a local Christian Democrat politician, Aileen Weibeler, said on social media, while the far-right Alternative für Deutschland co-leader Alice Weidel described it as “an apartheid” in which “white people are temporarily denied access”.

It was the latest in a long list of incidents linking swimming pools to racism. Across North America and Europe swimming pools have often acted as a flashpoint for wider racial tensions and exclusions.