Prostitution in Germany - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Prostitution in Germany is legal, and so are brothel

Brothel

Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

s. In 2002, the government changed the law in an effort to improve the legal situation of prostitutes. However, the social stigmatization of prostitutes persists and many prostitutes continue to lead a double life

Double Life

Double Life is a 2-CD compilation album of songs by Värttinä. It includes the entire 6.12 live album, and songs from studio albums Seleniko, Aitara and Ilmatar...

. Authorities consider the common exploitation of women from Eastern Europe to be the main problem associated with the occupation.

Prior to Confederation (1815)

Prostitution in historically German lands has been described since the middle ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. Since the 13th century, several German cities operated brothels known as Frauenhäuser ("women's houses");

the practice of prostitution was considered a necessary evil, a position already held by Saint Augustine. Emperor Sigismund

Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor

Sigismund of Luxemburg KG was King of Hungary, of Croatia from 1387 to 1437, of Bohemia from 1419, and Holy Roman Emperor for four years from 1433 until 1437, the last Emperor of the House of Luxemburg. He was also King of Italy from 1431, and of Germany from 1411...

(1368–1437) thanked the city of Konstanz

Konstanz

Konstanz is a university city with approximately 80,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south-west corner of Germany, bordering Switzerland. The city houses the University of Konstanz.-Location:...

in writing for providing some 1,500 prostitutes for the Council of Constance

Council of Constance

The Council of Constance is the 15th ecumenical council recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, held from 1414 to 1418. The council ended the Three-Popes Controversy, by deposing or accepting the resignation of the remaining Papal claimants and electing Pope Martin V.The Council also condemned and...

which took place from 1414 to 1418. Prostitutes were more vigorously prosecuted beginning in the 16th century, with the start of the Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

and the appearance of syphilis

Syphilis

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...

The Confederations (1815-1871), German Empire (1871-1918) and Republic (1918-1933)

Beginning in the 19th century, prostitutes in many regions had to register with police or local health authorities and submit to regular health checks to curb venereal diseases.

In Imperial Germany (1871–1918) attitudes to prostitution were ambivalent. While prostitution was tolerated as a necessary function to provide for male sexuality outside of marriage, it was frowned on as a threat to contemporary moral images of women's sexuality. Therefore state policy concentrated on regulation rather than abolition. This was mainly at the municipal level. The state regulation at the same time created an atmosphere which at the same time defined what was considered proper, and proper feminine sexuality. Controls were particularly tight in the port city of Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

. The regulations included defining the dress and conduct both inside and outside of brothels, of prostitutes. Thus their occupation defined their lives as a separate class of women, on the margins of society.

Third Reich (1933-1945)

During the Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

era, street prostitutes were seen as "asocial" and degenerate and were often sent to concentration camps, especially to the Ravensbrück camp

Ravensbrück concentration camp

Ravensbrück was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück ....

. The Nazis did not entirely disapprove of prostitution though and instead installed a centralized system of city brothels, military brothels (Wehrmachtsbordelle), brothels for foreign forced laborers, and concentration camp brothels. Between 1942 and 1945, camp brothels were installed in ten concentration camps

Nazi concentration camps

Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...

, including Auschwitz

Auschwitz concentration camp

Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...

. Himmler

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...

intended these as an incentive for cooperative and hard-working non-Jewish and non-Russian inmates, in order to increase productivity of the work camps. Initially the brothels were staffed mostly with former prostitute inmates who volunteered, but women were also put under pressure to work there.
In the documentary film, Memory of the Camps, a project supervised by the British Ministry of Information

Minister of Information

The Ministry of Information , headed by the Minister of Information, was a United Kingdom government department created briefly at the end of World War I and again during World War II...

and the American Office of War Information

United States Office of War Information

The United States Office of War Information was a U.S. government agency created during World War II to consolidate government information services. It operated from June 1942 until September 1945...

during the summer of 1945, camera crews filmed women who stated that they were forced into sexual slavery for the use of guards and favored prisoners. The film makers stated that as the women died they were replaced by women from the concentration camp Ravensbrück.

None of the women who were forced to work in these concentration camp brothels ever received compensation, since the German compensation laws do not cover persons designated as "asocial" by the Nazis.

In a famous case of espionage, the Nazi intelligence service SD

Sicherheitsdienst

Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...

took over the luxurious Berlin brothel Salon Kitty

Salon Kitty

Salon Kitty was a Berlin brothel used by the SD for espionage purposes before and during World War II.In the 1930s Berlin, Salon Kitty was a high-class brothel in 11 Giesebrechtstrasse. Its usual clientele included German dignitaries and foreign diplomats...

and equipped it with listening devices and specially trained prostitutes. From 1939 to 1942 the brothel was used to spy on important visitors.

German Democratic Republic (DDR 1945–1990)

After World War II, the country was divided into East Germany and West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

. In East Germany, as in all countries of the communist Eastern Block, prostitution was illegal and according to the official position it didn't exist. However there were high-class prostitutes working in the hotels of East Berlin

East Berlin

East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...

and the other major cities, mainly targeting Western visitors; the Stasi

Stasi

The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...

employed some of these for spying purposes. Street walkers and female taxi drivers were available for the pleasure of visiting Westerners, too.

Federal Republic of Germany (BRD 1945–2001)

In West Germany, the registration and testing requirements remained in place but were handled quite differently in the various regions of the country. In Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, in addition to scheduled STD check-ups regular HIV tests were required since 1987, but this was an exception. Many prostitutes did not submit to these tests, avoiding the registration. A study in 1992 found that only 2.5% of the tested prostitutes had a disease, a rate much lower than the one among comparable non-prostitutes.

In 1967, Europe's largest brothel at the time, the six-floor Eros Center, was opened on the Reeperbahn

Reeperbahn

The Reeperbahn is a street in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife and also the city's red-light district...

in Hamburg. An even larger one, the twelve-floor building now called Pascha in Cologne was opened in 1972. The AIDS scare of the late 1980s was bad for business, and the Eros Center as well as several other brothels in Hamburg had to close. The Pascha continued to flourish however, and now has evolved into a chain with additional brothels in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

and Salzburg

Salzburg

-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...

.

Anything done in the "promotion of prostitution" (Förderung der Prostitution) remained a crime until 2001, even after the extensive criminal law reforms of 1973. This put the operators of brothels in constant legal danger. Most brothels were therefore run as a bar with an attached but legally separate room rental. However, many municipalities built, ran and profited from high rise or townhouse-style high-rent Dirnenwohnheime (lit.: "whores' dormitories"), to keep street prostitution and pimping under control. Here prostitutes sell sex from a room that they rent by the day. These establishments are now mostly privatized and operate as Eros Centers.

The highest courts of Germany repeatedly ruled that prostitution offends good moral order (verstößt gegen die guten Sitten), with several legal consequences. Any contract that is considered immoral is null and void, so a prostitute could not sue for payment. Prostitutes working out of their apartment could lose their leases. Finally, bars and inns could be denied a license if prostitution took place on their premises.

In 1999, Felicitas Weigmann lost the license for her Berlin cafe Psst!, because the cafe was being used to initiate contacts between customers and prostitutes and had an attached room-rental also owned by Weigmann. She sued the city, arguing that society's position had changed and prostitution no longer qualified as offending the moral order. The judge conducted an extensive investigation and solicited a large number of opinions. In December 2000 the court agreed with Weigmann’s claim. This ruling is considered as precedent and important factor in the realization of the Prostitution Law of 1 January 2002. Only after an appeal process though, filed by the Berlin town district, was Weigmann to regain her café license in October 2002.

The compulsory registration and testing of prostitutes was abandoned in 2001. Since then, anonymous, free and voluntary health testing has been made available to everyone, including illegal immigrants. Many brothel operators require these tests.

Legislative reform (2002)

In 2002 a one page law sponsored by the Green Party

Alliance '90/The Greens

Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...

was passed by the ruling coalition of Social Democrats

Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

and Greens

Greens

Greens may refer to:*Leaf vegetables such as collard greens, mustard greens, spring greens, winter greens, spinach, etc.-Politics:Supranational* Green politics* Green party, political parties adhering to Green politics* Global Greens...

in the Bundestag

Bundestag

The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...

. The law removed the general prohibition on furthering prostitution and allowed prostitutes to obtain regular work contracts. The law's rationale stated that prostitution should not be considered as immoral anymore.

The law has been criticized as having not effectively changed the situation of the prostitutes, often because the prostitutes themselves don't want to change their working conditions and contracts. The German government issued a report on the law's impact in January 2007, concluding that few prostitutes had taken advantage of regular work contracts and that work conditions had improved only slightly, if at all.

Aftermath

Between 2000 and 2003, the visa issuing policies of German consulates were liberalized. The opposition claimed that this resulted in an increase in human trafficking and prostitutes entering the country illegally, especially from Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. The episode led to hearings in 2005 and is known as the German Visa Affair 2005

German Visa Affair 2005

The visa affair is the name given by German press to the controversy which arose in early 2005 over a change in the procedure for issuing visas to foreign nationals seeking to enter Germany from non-EU, Eastern European states...

.

In 2004 the Turkish gang leader Necati Arabaci

Necati Arabaci

Necati "Neco" Arabaci is a Turkish businessman and criminal, who was formerly active in Cologne, Germany and has been referred to as the "Boss of Bosses". In 2002 he was arrested for pimping, human trafficking, assault, extortion, weapons violations, and racketeering. In 2004 he was sentenced to...

was sentenced to 9 years in prison for pimping, human trafficking, assault, extortion, weapons violations and racketeering. His gang of bouncers controlled the night clubs in Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

's entertainment district, the Ring

Cologne Ring

The Cologne Ring is a semi-circular, some 6 km long urban boulevard in Innenstadt, Cologne and the city's busiest and most prominent street system...

, where they befriended girls in order to exploit them as prostitutes. After Arabaci's arrest, informants overheard threats against the responsible prosecutor, who received police protection and fled the country in 2007 when Arabaci was deported to Turkey.

In 2004, the large FKK

Freikörperkultur

Freikörperkultur is a German movement whose name translates to Free Body Culture. It endorses a naturistic approach to sports and community living. Behind that is the joy of the experience of nature or also of being nude itself, without direct relationship to sexuality. The followers of this...

-brothel Colosseum opened in Augsburg

Augsburg

Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...

, and police suspected a connection to Arabaci's gang, which owned several similar establishments and was supposedly directed from prison by its convicted leader.
After several raids, police determined that the managers of the brothel dictated the prices that the women had to charge, prohibited them from sitting in groups or using cell phones during work, set the work hours, searched rooms and handbags, and made them work completely nude (charging a penalty of 10 euros per infraction). In April 2006, five men were charged with pimping. The court quashed the charges, arguing that the prostitution law of 2002 created a regular employer-employee relationship and thus gave the employer certain rights to direct the working conditions. Colosseum remained in business.

Early in 2005, English media reported that a woman refusing to take a job as a prostitute might have her unemployment benefits reduced or removed altogether.
A similar story had appeared in mid-2003; a woman received a job offer through a private employment agency. In this case however, the agency apologized for the mistake, stating that a request for a prostitute would normally have been rejected, but the client misled them, describing the position as "a female barkeeper." To date, there have been no reported cases of women actually losing benefits in such a case, and the employment agencies have stated that women would not be made to work in prostitution.

In March 2007 the brothel "Pascha" in Cologne announced that senior citizens above the age of 66 would receive a discount during afternoons; half of the price of 50 euros for a "normal session" would be covered by the house. Earlier, in 2004, a 20% discount for long-term unemployed had been announced by a brothel in Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

.

Also in 2007, authorities in Berlin began to close several apartment brothels that had existed for years. They cited a 1983 court decision that found that the inevitable disturbances caused by brothels were incompatible with residential areas. Prostitutes' organizations and brothel owners fought these efforts. They commissioned a study that concluded that apartment brothels in general neither promote criminality nor disturb neighbors.

The economic downturn of 2009 has resulted in changes at some brothels. Reduced prices and free promotions are now found. Some changes, the result of modern marketing tools, rebates, gimmicks. Brothels introducing all-inclusive flat-rates, free shuttle buses, discounts for seniors and taxi drivers. "Day passes." Some brothels reportedly including loyalty cards, group sex parties, rebates for golf players. Clients have reported reducing their number of weekly visits.

In 2009, the Bundessozialgericht ruled that the German job agencies are not required to find prostitutes for open positions in brothels. The court rejected the complaint of a brothel owner who had argued that the law of 2002 had turned prostitution into a job like any other; the judges ruled that the law had been passed to protect the employees, not to further the business.

Football World Cup 2006

Officials speculated that up to 40,000 illegal prostitutes, mainly from Eastern European countries, would enter Germany for the Football (Soccer) World Cup

2006 FIFA World Cup

The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...

, held in Germany in the summer of 2006. Women and church groups were planning a "Red card to forced prostitution" campaign with the aim of alerting World Cup visitors to the existence of forced prostitution. They asked for support from the national football team and the national football organization but were initially rebuffed. In March 2006 the president of the German football federation turned around and agreed to support a campaign named "Final Whistle – Stop Forced Prostitution". The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe , which held its first session in Strasbourg on 10 August 1949, can be considered the oldest international parliamentary assembly with a pluralistic composition of democratically elected members of parliament established on the basis of an...

(PACE), the Nordic Council

Nordic Council

The Nordic Council is a geo-political, inter-parliamentary forum for co-operation between the Nordic countries. It was established following World War II and its first concrete result was the introduction in 1952 of a common labour market and free movement across borders without passports for the...

and Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

also expressed concern over an increase in the trafficking of women and forced prostitution up to and during the World Cup.

In March 2006 the campaign "Responsible John. Prostitution without compulsion and violence" was started by the government of Berlin. It provides a list of signs of forced prostitution and urges prostitutes' customers to call a hotline if they spot one of those signs.

In April 2006, an advertisement for the Pascha brothel in Cologne that featured a several story image of a half-naked woman with the flags of FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

countries sparked outrage after Muslims were offended by the inclusion of the Saudi Arabian and Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian flags. The Pascha brothel's owner, Armin Lobscheid, said a group of Muslims had threatened violence over the advertisement, and he blacked out the two flags. However, the Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

n flag that features the Muslim crescent

Crescent

In art and symbolism, a crescent is generally the shape produced when a circular disk has a segment of another circle removed from its edge, so that what remains is a shape enclosed by two circular arcs of different diameters which intersect at two points .In astronomy, a crescent...

remained on the advertisement.

On 30 June 2006, the New York Times reported that the expected increase in prostitution activity around the World Cup had not taken place. This was confirmed by the 2006 BKA

Federal Criminal Police Office (Germany)

The Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany is a national investigative police agency in Germany and falls directly under the Federal Ministry of the Interior...

report on human trafficking, which reported only 5 cases of human trafficking related to the World Cup.

Extent of prostitution and associated issues

Studies in the early 1990s estimated that about 50,000–200,000 women and some men worked as prostitutes in Germany. The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality
International Encyclopedia of Sexuality
The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality is a four-volume reference work on human sexuality, organized by country. It is also available online. It was published between 1997 and 2001 and was edited by Robert T. Francoeur and Raymond J. Noonan with contributions from academics worldwide...

, published in 1997, reported that over 100,000 women work in prostitution in Germany. A 2005 study gave 200,000 as a "halfway realistic estimate". The prostitutes' organization HYDRA puts the number at 400,000, and this number is typically quoted in the press today. A 2009 study by TAMPEP

TAMPEP

TAMPEP is an international organization that supports the health and human rights of migrant sex workers in Europe. Founded in 1993 with headquarters in Amsterdam, the organization initially operated in Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands...

also gave the HYDRA estimate of 400,000 full or part time prostitutes, with 93% being female, 3% transgender and 4% male.

The same study found that 63% of the prostitutes in Germany were foreigners, with two thirds of them coming from Central

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

and Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

. In 1999 the proportion of foreign prostitutes had been 52%. The increase was attributed to the EU enlargement

Enlargement of the European Union

The Enlargement of the European Union is the process of expanding the European Union through the accession of new member states. This process began with the Inner Six, who founded the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952...

.

From other studies, it is estimated that between 10% and 30% of the male adult population have had experiences with prostitutes. Of those 17-year-old males in West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

with experience of intercourse, 8% have had sex with a prostitute.

A 2009 survey identified the following main vulnerability factors for German sex workers (in the order of importance):

Financial problems, including debts and poverty.
Violence and abuse by clients, police and pimps.
No professional identity; lack of self-confidence.
Stigma and discrimination.
Exploitative personal dependencies.

Street prostitution

(Straßenstrich) Regular street prostitution is often quite well organized and controlled by pimps. Some prostitutes have a nearby caravan, others use the customer's car, still others use hotel rooms. With recent economic problems, in some large cities "wild" street prostitution has started to appear: areas where women work temporarily out of short-term financial need.

Prostitution for the procurement of narcotics

In every major German city there are prostitutes who offer their services to procure drugs. This often takes place near the main railway stations, while the act usually takes place in the customer's car or in a nearby rented room. These prostitutes are the most desperate, often underage, and their services are generally the cheapest. Pimp

Pimp

A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...

s and brothel owners try to avoid drug-addicted prostitutes, as they are inclined to spend their earnings solely or primarily on drugs. Other prostitutes tend to look down on them as well, because they are considered as lowering the market prices.

In a unique effort to move drug-addicted streetwalkers out of the city center and reduce violence against these women, the city of Cologne

Cologne

in 2001 created a special area for tolerated street prostitution in Geestemünder Straße. Dealers and pimps are not tolerated, the parking places have alarm buttons, and the women are provided with a cafeteria, showers, clean needles and counseling. The project, modeled on the Dutch tippelzones
Prostitution in the Netherlands
Prostitution in the Netherlands is legal and regulated. Operating a brothel is also legal. In the last few years, a significant number of brothels and "windows" have been closed because of suspected criminal activity...

, is supervised by an organization of Catholic women. A positive scientific evaluation was published in 2004.

Bars

In bars, women try to induce men to buy expensive drinks along with the sexual services. Sex usually takes place in a separate but attached building. Prices are mostly set by the bar owner, and the money is shared between the owner and the prostitute.

Eros centers

(Bordell, Laufhaus) An eros center is a house or street (Laufstraße) where women can rent small one-room apartments for some 80–150 euro per day. They then solicit customers from the open door or from behind a window. Prices are normally set by the prostitutes; they start at 25–50 euros for short-time sex. The money is not shared with the brothel owner. Security and meals are provided by the owner. The women may even live in their rooms, but most do not. Minors and women not working in the eros center are not allowed to enter. Eros centers exist in almost all larger German cities. The most famous is the Herbertstraße near the Reeperbahn

Reeperbahn

The Reeperbahn is a street in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife and also the city's red-light district...

in Hamburg. The largest brothel in Europe is the eros center Pascha in Cologne

Cologne

, a 12 story building with some 120 rooms for rent and several bars.

Brothels of all kinds advertise for sex workers in the weekly female-orientated magazine Heim und Welt.

Apartment prostitution

(Wohnungspuffs) There are many of these advertised in the daily newspapers. Sometime run by a single woman, sometimes by a group of roommates and sometimes as safehouses for traffickers, with the women being moved around on a weekly basis.

Massage parlours

Some massage parlours offer sexual services, though this is far less common than in the U.S.

Partytreffs and Pauschalclubs

These are a variation on partner-swapping swing clubs

Sex club

Sex clubs are either groups that organize sex related activities or an establishment where patrons can engage in sex acts with other patrons. A sex club differs from a brothel in that, while sex club patrons typically pay a fee to enter the club, they have sex with other patrons rather than with...

with (sometimes, but not always) paid prostitutes in attendance, as well as 'amateur' women and couples. Single men pay a flat-rate entrance charge of about 80 to 150 euros, which includes food, drink and unlimited sex sessions, with the added twist that these are performed in the open in full view of all the guests. Women normally pay a low or zero entrance charge.

FKK clubs or Sauna clubs

Typically, these are houses or large buildings, often with swimming pool and sauna, a large 'meet and greet' room with bar and buffet on the ground floor, TV/video screens, and bedrooms on the upper floor(s). Operating hours are usually from late morning until after midnight. Women are typically nude or topless, men may wear robes or towels. Men and women often pay the same entrance fee, from 35 to 70 euros, including use of all facilities, food and drinks (soft drinks and beer, most FKKs do not allow liquor). Some clubs will admit couples. The women who work there keep all money they receive from customers. Prices may not be set by the clubs' owners by German anti-pimping laws, but typically the women in one club all agree on set fees from 25 to 100 euro for a 20 to 60 minute session. In some clubs the money is shared between prostitute and owner, which technically is illegal. This form of prostitution, which was mentioned in the rationale of the 2002 prostitution law as providing good working conditions for the women, exists all over Germany and parts of the Netherlands, but mainly in the Rhein-Ruhrgebiet and in the area around Frankfurt am Main. Among the largest clubs of this type are: Artemis

Artemis (brothel)

Artemis is a large brothel in Germany, where prostitution is legal and widespread. The 'wellness brothel' opened in Berlin in September 2005, a four-story building complete with a pool, three saunas, two cinemas, and with room for up to 70 prostitutes and 600 customers.- Organization and...

in Berlin, opened in the fall of 2005, Samya in Cologne

Cologne

, the new Harem in Bad Lippspringe

Bad Lippspringe

Bad Lippspringe is a town in the district of Paderborn, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Bad Lippspringe is situated on the western slope of the Teutoburger Wald, approx. 10 km north-east of Paderborn...

and the long established Oase in the countryside near Bad Homburg

Bad Homburg

Bad Homburg vor der Höhe is the district town of the Hochtaunuskreis, Hesse, Germany, on the southern slope of the Taunus, bordering among others Frankfurt am Main and Oberursel...

, as well as hundreds of others.

Escort services

(Begleitagenturen) Escort services, where the customer calls to have a woman meet him at home or at a hotel for sexual services, exist in Germany as well, but are not nearly as prevalent as in the US

For special groups

Sexual services for the disabled and elderly. The agency Sensis in Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...

connects prostitutes with disabled customers. Nina de Vries

Nina de Vries

Nina de Vries is a Dutch sex worker or sexual surrogate who offers erotic massages to intellectually disabled men and women in Berlin and other parts of Germany. She also trains others to do the same....

somewhat controversially provides sexual services to severely mentally disabled men and has been repeatedly covered in the media. Professional training is available for 'sex assistants'.

Forms of male prostitution

A comparatively small number of males offer sexual services to females, usually in the form of escort services, meeting in hotels. The vast majority of male prostitutes serve male clients. In 2007 it was estimated that there were 2,500 male prostitutes in Berlin.

Legal situation

Prostitution is legal in Germany. Prostitutes may work as regular employees with contract, though the vast majority work independently. Brothels are registered businesses that do not need a special brothel license; if food and alcoholic drinks are offered, the standard restaurant license is required.

Prostitutes have to pay income taxes and even have to charge VAT

Vat

Vat or VAT may refer to:* A type of container such as a barrel, storage tank, or tub, often constructed of welded sheet stainless steel, and used for holding, storing, and processing liquids such as milk, wine, and beer...

for their services, to be paid to the tax office. In practice, prostitution is a cash business and taxes are not always paid, though enforcement has recently been strengthened. The Länder
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...

North Rhine-Westfalia, Baden Württemberg and Berlin have initiated a system where prostitutes have to pay their taxes in advance, a set amount per day, to be collected and paid to tax authorities by the brothel owners. North Rhine-Westfalia charges 25 euros per day per prostitute, while Berlin charges 30 euros. In May 2007 authorities were considering plans for a uniform country-wide system charging 25 euros per day.

The first city in Germany to introduce an explicit prostitution tax was Cologne

Cologne

. The tax was initiated early in 2004 by the city council led by a coalition of the conservative CDU

Christian Democratic Union (Germany)

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...

and the leftist Greens. This tax applies to striptease

Striptease

A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...

, peep show

Peep show

A peep show or peepshow is an exhibition of pictures, objects or people viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass. Though historically a peep show was a form of entertainment provided by wandering showmen, nowadays it more commonly refers a presentation of a sex show or pornographic film...

s, porn

Pornography

Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...

cinemas, sex fairs, massage parlors, and prostitution. In the case of prostitution, the tax amounts to 150 euros per month and working prostitute, to be paid by brothel owners or by privately working prostitutes. (The area Geestemünder Straße mentioned above is exempt.) Containment of prostitution was one explicitly stated goal of the tax. In 2006 the city took in 828,000 euros through this tax.

Until 2002, prostitutes and brothels were technically not allowed to advertise, but that prohibition was not enforced. The Bundesgerichtshof ruled in July 2006 that, as a consequence of the new prostitution law, advertising of sexual services is no longer illegal. Before the law and still now, many newspapers carry daily ads for brothels and for women working out of apartments. Many prostitutes and brothels have websites on the Internet. In addition, sex shops and newsstands sell magazines specializing in advertisements of prostitutes ("Happy Weekend", "St Pauli Nachrichten" ["St. Pauli News"], "Sexy" and many more).

Every city has the right to zone off certain areas where prostitution is not allowed (Sperrbezirk). Prostitutes found working in these areas can be fined or, when persistent, jailed. The various cities handle this very differently. In Berlin prostitution is allowed everywhere, and Hamburg

Hamburg

allows street prostitution near the Reeperbahn

Reeperbahn

The Reeperbahn is a street in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife and also the city's red-light district...

during certain times of the day. Almost the entire center of Munich

Munich

is Sperrbezirk, and under-cover police have posed as clients to arrest prostitutes. In Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, street prostitution is forbidden almost everywhere, and the city even has a local law allowing police to fine customers who solicit prostitution in public. In most smaller cities, the Sperrbezirk includes the immediate city center as well as residential areas. Several states prohibit brothels in small towns (such as towns with fewer than 35,000 inhabitants).

Foreign women from European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

countries are allowed to work as prostitutes in Germany. Women from other countries can obtain three-month tourist visas for Germany. If they work in prostitution, it is illegal, because the tourist visa does not include a work permit.

Pimp

Pimp

ing, admitting prostitutes under the age of eighteen to a brothel, and influencing persons under the age of twenty-one to take up or continue work in prostitution, are illegal. It is also illegal to buy sex from any person younger than 18. (Before 2008 this age limit was 16.) This law also applies to Germans traveling abroad, to combat child prostitution occurring in the context of sex tourism

Sex tourism

Sex tourism is travel to engage in sexual activity with prostitutes.The World Tourism Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, defines sex tourism as "trips organized from within the tourism sector, or from outside this sector but using its structures and networks, with the primary...

Health

Regular health checks for prostitutes are not mandated by law in Germany.
In Bavaria

Bavaria

(Bayern), law mandates the use of condoms for sexual intercourse with prostitutes, including oral contact.

Crime

The 1957 murder of the high-class prostitute Rosemarie Nitribitt

Rosemarie Nitribitt

Rosalie Marie Auguste Nitribitt was a German call girl whose violent death caused a scandal in the Germany of the Wirtschaftswunder years.-Early life and career:...

in Frankfurt drew great media attention in postwar Germany. The circumstances of her death remain obscure. Police investigations turned up no substantial leads other than a prime suspect who was later acquitted due to reasonable doubt. Several high-profile, respectable citizens turned out to have been among her customers, a fact on which the media based insinuations that higher social circles might be covering up and obstructing the search for the real murderer. The scandal inspired two movies.

Werner Pinzner was a contract murderer active in the brothel scene of Hamburg in the 1980s. Captured in 1986, he confessed to eight murders of people involved in prostitution businesses. His long-time female lawyer and his wife conspired to smuggle a gun into the Hamburg police headquarters on 29 July 1986, and Pinzner proceeded to kill the attending prosecutor, his wife and himself. The lawyer was sentenced to six years in prison for aiding in murder.

Six persons were murdered in a brothel in Frankfurt am Main in 1994. The Hungarian couple managing the place as well as four Russian prostitutes were strangled with electric cables. The case was resolved soon after: it was a robbery gone bad, carried out by the husband of a woman who had worked there.

Human trafficking

Illegal human trafficking is a major focus of police work in Germany, yet it remains prevalent. In 2007, Germany was listed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is a United Nations agency that was established in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention by combining the United Nations International Drug Control Program and the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Division in the United Nations...

as a top destination for victims of human trafficking.

In 2009, 710 victims of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation were discovered, an increase of 5% in comparison with 2008.

In 2008, authorities identified 676 sex-trafficking victims.

In 2007, law enforcement authorities recorded 689 victims trafficked for sexual exploitation. Most victims (419) were between the ages of 18 and 24; 184 were nationals of the country. Approximately 12 percent were under the age of 18, including 39 citizens. One percent (seven) were under 14 years of age.

The trafficking in women from Eastern Europe is often organized by perpetrators from that same region. The German Federal Police Office BKA

Federal Criminal Police Office (Germany)

The Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany is a national investigative police agency in Germany and falls directly under the Federal Ministry of the Interior...

reported in 2006 a total of 357 completed investigations of human trafficking, with 775 victims. Thirty-five percent of the suspects were Germans born in Germany and 8% were German citizens born outside of Germany.

According to the report, in 2006 about 35% of the victims of human trafficking reported that they had agreed from the beginning to work in prostitution; often they did not know about the working conditions and debts incurred. Some others hoped for a job as waitress, maid or au-pair; some were simply abducted. Once in Germany, their passport

Passport

A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....

s are sometimes taken away and they are informed that they now have to work off the cost of the trip. Sometimes they are brokered to pimps or brothel operators, who then make them work off the purchase price. They work in brothels, bars, apartments; as streetwalkers or as escorts and have to hand over the better part of their earnings. Some women reconcile themselves with this situation as they still make much more money than they could at home; others rebel and are threatened or abused. They are, reportedly, sometimes told that the police have been paid off and will not help them, which is false. They are, reportedly, also threatened with harm to their families at home.

The report states that victims are often unwilling to testify against their oppressors: the only incentive they have to do so is the permission to remain in the country until the end of the trial (with the hope of finding a husband during that time), rather than being deported immediately.

Scandals and news coverage

In 2003, German CDU

Christian Democratic Union (Germany)

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...

politician Michel Friedman

Michel Friedman

Michel Friedman is a German lawyer, former CDU politician and talk show host. From 2000 to 2003 Friedman was vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and president of the European Jewish Congress from 2001 to 2003. From 1998 to 2003 he had his own show on German television...

, popular TV talk show host and then assistant chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany

Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland

The Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland is a federation of German Jews organizing many Jewish organisations in Germany. It was founded on July 19, 1950, as a response to the increasing isolation of German Jews by the international Jewish community and increasing interest in Jewish affairs by the ...

, became embroiled in an investigation of trafficking women. He had been a client of several escort prostitutes from Eastern Europe who testified that he had repeatedly taken and offered cocaine

Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

. After receiving a fine for the drug charge, he resigned from all posts. Since 2004 he has been hosting a weekly talk show on the TV channel N24

N24 (Germany)

N24 is a television news channel based in Germany. It is owned N24 Media GmbH. It was previously owned and operated by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. N24 provides regular news updates to ProSiebenSat.1 Media properties like kabel eins and ProSieben.-History:...

.

Also in 2003, well-known artist and art professor Jörg Immendorff

Jörg Immendorff

Jörg Immendorff was one of the best known contemporary German painters; he was also a sculptor, stage designer and art professor.- Life and work :...

was caught in the luxury suite of a Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

hotel with seven prostitutes (and four more on their way) and some cocaine

Cocaine

. He admitted to having staged several such orgies and received 11 months on probation and a fine for the drug charges. He attempted to explain his actions by his "orientalism

Orientalism

Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...

" and his terminal illness.

Politics

The coalition of Social Democrat

Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

s and the Green Party that governed the country from 1998 until late 2005 attempted to improve the legal situation of prostitutes in the years 2000–2003. These efforts have been criticized as inadequate by prostitutes' organizations such as HYDRA, which lobby for full normality of the occupation and the elimination of all mention of prostitution from the legal code. The conservative parties in the Bundestag

Bundestag

, while supporting the goal of improving prostitutes' access to the social security and health care system, have opposed the new law because they want to retain the "offending good morals" status.

The churches

Religion in Germany

Christianity is the largest religion in Germany with 54,765,265 adherents as of the end of 2006, down to 51.5 million adherents as of 2008. The second largest religion is Islam with 3.3 million adherents followed by Buddhism and Judaism...

run several support groups for prostitutes. These generally favor attempts to remove stigmatization and improve the legal situation of prostitutes, but they retain the long term abolitionist goal of a world without prostitution and encourage all prostitutes to quit.

Alice Schwarzer

Alice Schwarzer

Alice Schwarzer is the most prominent contemporary German feminist. She is founder and publisher of the German feminist journal EMMA.-Biography and positions:...

and her branch of feminism rejects all prostitution as inherently oppressive and abusive; they favor a law like that in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, where in 1999 after heavy feminist lobbying a coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and leftists outlawed the buying but not the selling of sexual services.

In 2005, the ruling grand coalition

Grand Coalition (Germany)

In modern Germany, grand coalition describes a governing coalition of the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, as they are the two largest parties.-Weimar Republic:...

of CDU

Christian Democratic Union (Germany)

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...

and SPD

Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

announced plans to punish customers of forced prostitutes, if the customer could reasonably have been aware of the situation. In April 2009 it was reported that the plans would provide for a penalty of up to 5 years in prison. The law had not been enacted when the center-right CDU-FDP

Free Democratic Party (Germany)

The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...

coalition came to power in November 2009.

External links

HYDRA e.V., support organization for prostitutes, also has the text of the new prostitution law
Scathing criticism of the new prostitution law, by Doña Carmen, a support group for foreign prostitutes working in Germany
Madonna e.V. For the welfare and rights of prostitutes in Germany
Bundesverband Sexuelle Dienstleistung e.V., association of brothel operators.
Freiersein, information site for prostitution customers, run by prostitutes' support organizations. Has a section with "10 rules for fair play" outlining proper behavior of customers.
Reports on human trafficking, by the BKA
Federal Criminal Police Office (Germany)
The Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany is a national investigative police agency in Germany and falls directly under the Federal Ministry of the Interior...

, the German equivalent to the FBI
Photos of brothel rooms in Germany

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