4th July
2009 | | |
Cheap rates for working girls are held to be disrespectful
| Based on
article from thelocal.de
|
A mayor in the state of Baden-Württemberg has started an initiative to outlaw so-called flat-rate bordellos. The plan was announced in an interview with Christoph Palm of the Christian Democrat party and mayor of the town Fellbach, near
Stuttgart.
Social Democrat representative Katrin Altpeter has lent her support to the plan. The state must intervene quickly to ban arrangements that do not respect human dignity, she said.
The Pussyclub bordello opened in
Fellbach on June 5 offering a flat-rate deal for sex. Customers pay between €70 and €100 to patronise prostitutes as often as they like in a single visit.
The low price raises the suspicion that the women are being exploited, Palm told
SWR4.
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29th July
2009 | | |
All in brothel rate for food, drinks and several girls winds up the German authorities
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Based on article from dw-world.de |
Police and law officials have raided German bordellos under suspicion of social security fraud, among others. They have been trying to stop the flat-rate fee system in brothels, arguing that it violates prostitutes' dignity.
While the global
recession has hit the financial sector, the export industry, and car companies, it has also been felt in the world's oldest business sector - prostitution.
One such way which has made headlines in Germany is the flat-rate fee system,
offered by at least four brothels in Germany, where prostitution is legal.
The Pussy Club chain offers such a flat rate, which entitles customers to unlimited sexual services all day for a one-off entry fee of 70 euros ($100).
But the new
discount scheme has triggered a wave of protests, especially in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
Authorities there are now trying to shut down the brothels, arguing the new pricing plan violates the human dignity of the women working
there.
Baden-Wuerttemberg Justice Minister Ulrich Goll told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine that there was a strong enough legal justification for police and authorities to intervene: If you look at the way these brothels advertise, then
there's a violation of the human dignity of the prostitutes who work there, he said, adding that authorities were working on a way to stop the brothels from operating the way they do under that current fee system.
On Sunday, police and
justice officials searched brothels using the plan in Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Schoenefeld near Berlin and Wuppertal. They say they suspect the bordellos of social security fraud, employing foreign prostitutes without permission and not maintaining hygiene
standards.
The brothels' advertising slogan has a simple message: Sex with all women, as long as you want, as often as you want. For 70 euros customers are entitled to all the sex, food and drink they want between 10 am and 4 pm. The
evening flat rate rises to 100 euros.
The operator of the Pussy Club brothels, Patricia Floreiu, defended the new pricing scheme, arguing that most customers leave after one or two sessions and that none of the women are forced into the working
under the new terms: It simply brings in more customers. Hardly anyone can 'do it' more than twice. So basically the flat rate is mostly for the free beer, she says.
Two of the brothels, in Stuttgart and Heidelberg, were ordered closed
after health inspectors said they might spread disease. The raids also targeted franchises in Berlin and the city of Wuppertal, but those brothels remained open.
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6th February
2010 | | |
German police raid 600 brothels
| Based on
article from dw-world.de
|
German police raided about 600 brothels in 13 states Tuesday night targeting human trafficking from West Africa. The Federal Criminal Police Office said Wednesday that it was interviewing more than 100 women from different West African countries
who were forced to work as prostitutes, some of them minors. Tuesday's raids follow an investigation of several years. Only if we manage to win the trust of victims and persuade them to cooperate with the authorities can we break the cycle of
repression, intimidation and dependency, said federal police chief Joerg Ziercke in Wiesbaden.
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24th January
2012 | | |
Tax on sex workers paid via parking meters hailed a success in the German city of Bonn
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A German city that introduced a tax on street prostitutes via kerb-side meters has said that the programme had been a success and would continue. The Bonn government said a sex tax covering levies on sauna clubs, erotic centres and
automated pay stations similar to parking meters that were rolled out in August had brought in around 250,000 euros last year. About 14,000 euros came from the sex meters. Bonn was the first city in Germany to introduce the meters for sex workers
as a means of extending a general tax on prostitution previously only levied on indoor sex businesses. The meters were installed in an industrial area near the centre of town with each sex worker paying six euros per night worked, regardless of
how many customers they have. Those repeatedly caught without a ticket they can be fined.
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20th April
2012 | | |
Tax inspectors set task of measure the areas of Stuttgart businesses set aside for pleasure
|
From thelocal.de
|
Stuttgart tax inspectors are facing the task of measuring the floor space in all the Stuggart's brothels, after a new per square metre tax was introduced on the oldest profession. The collectors initially resorted to extensive internet
research to find all the sex businesses in the city, but found their computers blocked from the relevant sites. Once the necessary special permission was granted, taxman Rolf Kiener and his colleagues were initially shocked. It's rather eye-opening
what's out there, he said. The new tax means that all spaces in the city used to sell erotic pleasures will be taxed by the square metre, including strip clubs, porn cinemas and brothels. Establishments that offer both initial
approach and completion of a transaction will be forced to pay as much as EUR10 per square metre per month. To save embarrassment, tax inspectors will be measuring up the premises by appointment rather than turning up unannounced.
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German government is close to enacting new restrictions on brothels
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 | 23rd April
2013
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| See article
from spiegel.de
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Germany's center-right governing coalition has agreed to enact restrictions on sex work in the country. Members of the coalition -- made up of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party, the Christian
Social Union (CSU), and the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) -- say that an agreement over an appropriate set of regulations has nearly been reached. Prostitution is legal in Germany, but the coalition plans to toughen criminal penalties
against human trafficking and more strictly restrict the commercial activities of brothels. In future, brothel operators will need special authorization to open such an establishment. Moreover, authorities will be required to enforce hygienic
standards and operators will be screened for prior criminal offences. There is still resistance, however, from Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP), who wants to prevent harsher criminal laws in the sex industry.
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TV documentary shows that legalisation has made for a booming sex industry
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| 12th June
2013
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| See article from
thelocal.de
See Sex Made in Germany (German language) from YouTube
|
A new documentary has revealed how making prostitution legal in Germany has created a booming industry. Show on public broadcaster ARD, Sex -- Made in Germany shook up the country's normally mundane Monday television offerings,
examining the subject of prostitution just over ten years after it became legal in Germany. The film, which frequently used hidden cameras at red light establishments, did not quite show a total success story. Two years of interviews, brothel
visits and undercover reporting showed an industry flourishing -- but one in which women have become a resource, which are being used as efficiently as possible, (just like any business). Over a million men pay for sex each day in Germany.
Many of these now visit flat-rate brothels where men can paid a mere EUR49 for a night of as much sex as they can muster. These have become an increasingly popular business model in Berlin where sex is cheaper than anywhere else, a brothel
owner told the journalists. So popular are the country's cut-price offerings, that specialist holiday operators now offer tailored sex-holidays for groups of men from Asian, the Middle East and North America. They are taken around brothels
for six straight days of drunken fun. Guests also travel from closer afield, with one Danish man explaining that the quality is good and everything is alright. The reporters also visited Europe's biggest brothel in Stuttgart, where 55,000
men came in and out of its doors each year. Many of the women there are not German though, as 65% working in the country are foreign, often from eastern European countries Like Romania and Bulgaria. Some were homegrown though, with one prostitute
admitting that lots of girls who are taking their high school diploma come and work for a day or two over the weekend to earn a bit of money, because they no longer see it as something bad. The film touched on several cases where eastern
European women had come to Germany for a better life, which wasn't to be. One Romanian woman, found herself having sex with up to 40 men a day until, eventually, authorities shut the business down for violating health codes. What the government
does seem to be profiting from since legalizing prostitution though, is the tax it generates. Even street walkers have to pay special sex work tax es.
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Campaigners seek an end to legal prostitution in Germany
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20th November 2013
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| See article
from dailystar.com.lb |
A decade after Germany loosened already relaxed restrictions on prostitution, campaigners are seeking to ban the trade, with leading feminist Alice Schwarzer labeling the country a paradise for pimps. Dozens of politicians, actors and
journalists this month have signed Schwarzer's appeal to Chancellor Angela Merkel and parliament to ban sex work. She said: Germany tolerates, accepts and promotes prostitution, mostly at the expense of the poorest
women from neighboring countries.
She urged a review of the 2002 law that theoretically gave sex workers access to unemployment insurance, controlled working conditions and medical coverage. She claimed that the law backfired and has
turned Germany into a paradise for pimps who can now more easily exploit women, especially from poorer central European countries like Romania and Bulgaria. She added that the liberalization of prostitution has been a disaster for the people
involved, estimating the number of prostitutes working in Germany now at 700,000. In a 2007 report, the government conceded that the outcome had been disappointing and the legal change did not actually improve the welfare of prostitutes.
The study found only 1% of prostitutes had an employment contract. However even treading water is an improvement saving at least the arrests, jailings, ruined lives and policing costs associated with prohibition. Schwarzer of course cited sex
trafficking and slavery but National police data shows that reported cases of human trafficking have been on the decline since the introduction of the new law, from 811 in 2002 to 432 in 2011. The renewed calls to ban prostitution have now made it
onto the agenda of ongoing coalition talks between Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats. Undine de Riviere, a sex worker and spokeswoman for a professional union of suppliers of sexual and erotic services, is part of
the opposition. She told the Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung: Feminists do not think we can speak for ourselves. The desire to control sexuality and prostitution has always been great and very difficult to get out of
people's heads.
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Flat rate brothel deals become popular in Germany so miserable politicians want to spoil the party
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| 3rd
December 2013
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| See article from
ctvnews.ca |
Germany's biggest political parties have agreed to ban so-called flat-rate sex offered by some brothels in the country. The move is part of a clampdown on Germany's booming prostitution industry that has been doing very well since a 2002 law legalized
sex work. Deals are offered in some brothels for men to have have unlimited sex for 100 euros. Anja Strieder, spokeswoman for the centre-left Social Democrats, confirmed a report by Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that a ban was agreed
during coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Union bloc. She said better protection for victims of enforced prostitution and stricter rules for brothel operators will also be included in a bill that could be introduced once
the government is formally appointed. |
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German mega-brothel is keenly anticipating the criminalisation of sex buyers in nearby France
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| 6th
December 2013
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| See article
from independent.co.uk
See
A giant Teutonic brothel from
economist.com |
The German town of Saarbrucken near the French border is developing as a thriving location for the sex trade. The city has 170,000 residents and a population of over 1,000 call girls with a steady influx East Europeans joining the sex trade, often to
escape poverty at home. Early next year their numbers will swell even further with the opening of a new EUR4.5m 6,000sq-metre mega brothel in Saarbrucken's Burbach district. It will employ 90 full-time sex workers and be run by a permanent staff
of 45. The establishment has been described as one of the largest brothels in Europe. Local authorities bemoan the fact that they have virtually no power to halt the expansion of the city's already booming sex industry, but two factors have
combined to create Saarbru cken's seemingly unstoppable sex trade boom. The first is what was once hailed as an enlightened German government decision to liberalise what were considered to be outdated and repressive laws governing
prostitution and the sex trade. Back in 2001, under Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, Germany's governing Social Democrat-Green coalition tried to make prostitution a job like any other by passing laws that gave call girls full rights to health insurance,
pensions and other benefits provided they paid the requisite taxes. The second factor that has contributed to the boom in the sex trade is the city's proximity to the French cities of Strassbourg, Nancy and Metz, where the legality of prostitution
is a grey area, and soon to get worse with heavy fines for those caught buying sex. Paradise Island Entertainment, which is behind the city's new mega-brothel project, said it chose the city precisely because of its proximity to France.
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| 8th
March 2014
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When Germany legalised prostitution in 2002 it triggered unstoppable growth in the country's sex industry. It's now worth 15 billion euros a year and embraces everything from 12-storey mega-brothels to outdoor sex boxes. See
article from s.telegraph.co.uk |
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German politicians seek to force sex workers to register, impose a minimum age of 21, and ban flat rate pricing
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| 24th August
2014
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| See article from
nswp.org |
The ruling coalition of Conservatives and Social Democrats in Germany has agreed on restrictions to the Prostitution Act of 2002. In the future, sex workers will have to register with the authorities, the owners of brothels will have to submit to
reliability checks, and flat rate sex and gang bang parties are going to be outlawed. Manuela Schwesig , Federal Minister for Family Affairs (Social Democrats), declared that the new regulations meant that for the first time, there would be clear rules for legal prostitution in Germany that will protect the women
. Social Democrats (SPD) and Conservatives (CDU/CSU) still negotiate on other items, including a minimum age for sex workers of 21. Conservatives want to raise the minimum age for sex workers from 18 to 21. A law demanding mandatory
registration would harm the women, criticised Fabienne Freymadl, political spokeswoman of the Professional Organisation for Erotic and Sexual Services (BesD) , where sex workers in Germany are organised{ Especially sex
workers who work on a part-time basis do not want to register due to the risk that their data may be passed on to third parties and women could be outed for their stigmatised professionl. If women experienced assaults, they could henceforward not report
them to the police anymore, if they weren't registered with the authorities.
The BesD is also critical of the planned statutory permission requirements and reliability checks for brothel owners. According to the new
regulations, brothel owners with criminal records can be barred from operating brothels. However, an exemption from the statutory permission requirements is planned, if individual persons sell sex in private apartments. Freymadl said:
Outlawing flat rate sex and so-called gang bang parties showed how moralising the debate actually was. Outlawing certain business models and practices, which the public perceived as particularly demeaning, contributed nothing to fight
forced prostitution , since criminals wouldn't heed such bans anyway. The remaining points of contention regarding the reform of the prostitution law are to be clarified in the early
fall. The plan of the Conservatives to punish customers of forced prostitutes remains controversial. Critics fear that even less customers would then provide tip-offs to the police about forced prostitution , should they involuntarily
encounter such women. |
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Court bans sex workers from the streets of Dortmund citing that the trade has become to popular
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| 12th
August 2015
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| See
article from
focus-fen.net |
An administrative court in Dortmund, northwest Germany has banned practising the oldest profession on the territory of the city as the number of sex workers, mostly from Bulgaria and Romania, has tripled. Prior to the EU expansion of 2007 there
were about 60 sex workers on the streets of Dortmund, but with the entry of Bulgaria and Romania, the numbers swelled to 500 in the first year and 700 a year later. |
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4th December 2015
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Moves to reform Germany's prostitution laws are based on bad information and don't have sex workers' best interests at heart, argues expert Sonja Dolinsek. See
article from thelocal.de |
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Germany proposes law requiring registration for sex workers and mandatory condom use
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| 20th February
2016
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| See article from nswp.org |
Germany is considering a new law that will require men to wear condoms during sex with sex workers. Under the proposed law, sex workers would be required to register and meet regularly with government health counselors. The law would also ban sex
workers from living in the rooms where they work. The proposed law could enter into force on July 1, 2017, said a spokesman for women's affairs in Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. The Global Network of Sex Worker
Projects' (NSWP) Regional Correspondent in Europe gathered together comments from sex workers. PG from Hydra said: It is a bad sign, she said, this law won't protect sex workers. It is just about control. This new law
comes in one package with forced registration and health 'counselling'.
According to PG, a similar law is already in place in Bavaria. Sex workers there have to register and condom usage is mandatory. Bavarian police are sending fake
clients to sex workers asking for unprotected sex and if the sex worker agrees, they will be punished. Germany legalised sex work in 2002. Under current laws, sex workers can collect public unemployment insurance and medical coverage. Obligatory condom usage is implemented in New Zealand as well, where everyone should use a condom and/or dental dam for vaginal, oral and anal sex.
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Germany passes new law to mandate condoms for sex with prostitutes
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| 24th
September 2016
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| See article from
deccanchronicle.com |
Germany has approved a new law that makes it illegal to have sex with prostitutes without using a condom. According to a report in the Independent, brothel owners will now be expected to make their customers aware of the new law and inform them that
unprotected sex will be banned. The law has been approved by Bundesrat, Germany's upper house of Parliament. It will now be sent to President Joachim Gauck for his approval. The law will come into force on July 1, 2017, The new law will
also make licensing mandatory for all brothels so that they would comply with all rules and meet legal standards. Sex wrkers will also be expected to register with the local police who will issue certificates that would require a renewal every two
years. The sex workers will also be required to attend a health advice session once in a year. Those violating the law, including sex workers, pimps, buyers or brothel owners, could face fines from € 1,000 to
€ 50,000. Brothel owners could also be stripped off their license. |
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Germany passes new law requiring sex workers to register with their local authority
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| 4th July
2017
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| See article from dw.com |
Germany has enacted a new prostitution law with more state control, more regulations and more penalties. It is going to become more difficult to make money as a sex worker in Germany. Prostitutes and brothels will now be subject to closer scrutiny under
a new law for the regulation of the prostitution industry and the protection of sex workers, which went into effect on July 1. According to the new law, sex workers must register with local authorities and seek a medical consultation from a public
health service. In the future, brothels or businesses that offer sex services will be required to apply for a permit that will only be granted if health, hygiene and room requirements are met. The new law prohibits flat-rate brothels and gang-bang
parties, in which a sex worker must service several men concurrently. Also, sex without a condom is prohibited. Furthermore, clients who knowingly make use of the services provided by people who have been forced into prostitution will be penalized.
The fear of registration is rampant in the industry. Panic is spreading, says Silvia Vorhauer, a counselor at Dortmund's Mitternachtsmission, an organization that helps women who have quit prostitution. Many women fear this change. They argue, I
cannot register and then get around with this ID. I'm going to have to quit. Vorhauer notes egistration at the local government office leads to the stigmatization and criminalization of women. This move is dangerous, she says, because prostitution may
then be forced underground into illegality.
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| 24th June 2019
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The German Paradise Club chain of mega brothels comes to a bad end as lack of available sex workers led to trafficking See
article from theguardian.com |
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Miserable German lawmakers have fallen in love with the lockdown rules and want sex workers to be permanently distanced 2 metres from their customers
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| 22nd May 2020
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| See article from dw.com
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Coronavirus has caused Germany's brothels to close their doors, but some politicians inevitatbly want the ban to become permanent. Prominent German politicians called for brothels to be closed indefinitely, extending their temporary closure due to
coronavirus restrictions. Sixteen lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right CDU party and the center-left Social Democrats wrote a letter, seen by German media, to the premiers of the 16 German states claiming that sex workers could
become super spreaders of the virus. In their letter, the German lawmakers express hope that the closure of the brothels could be a good opportunity to improve opportunities for sex workers in Germany. Re-opening the brothels will not help these
women. Instead, they need apprenticeships, training or work in a secure job. The letter calls for Germany to take the opportunity to adopt the Nordic model, under which paying for sex is illegal. |
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