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As a native German, Katrin Bennhold was familiar with some of her compatriots’ penchant for walking around topless at lakes and beaches. But near the end of summer in 2018, while riding her bicycle to The Times’s Berlin bureau through Tiergarten, Berlin’s equivalent of Central Park, Ms. Bennhold was surprised to discover people tanning completely naked in the middle of the park.

A year later, she shared her amazement about this cultural facet, and what it means to Germany and its people, in an article known as a Dispatch.

“When you’re a correspondent, and there’s a moment that really surprises you,” Ms. Bennhold, The Times’s Berlin bureau chief, said, “usually there’s a good Dispatch.”