Prostitution in Germany

Prostitution in Germany is legal and rather widespread. In 2003, the government tried to improve the legal situation of prostitutes, yet the general stigmatization of prostitutes persists. Authorities consider the common exploitation of women from Eastern Europe to be the main problem associated with the occupation.

Forms and extent of prostitution

Various studies in the early 1990s estimated that about 50,000 - 200,000 women work as prostitutes in Germany. The prostitutes' organization HYDRA puts that number at 400,000, and this is the number typically quoted in the press today. From other studies, it is estimated that between 10% and 30% of the male adult population have had experiences with prostitutes.

Drug procurement. Every major German city has drug procurement prostitution, often near the railway stations, with sex taking place in the customer's car or in a nearby rented room. These prostitutes are the most desperate, and their services are the cheapest. Pimps and brothel owners usually avoid drug addicted prostitutes, as they quickly convert all earnings into drugs. Other prostitutes look down on them as well, because they are seen as lowering the prices.

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

Eros centers. An eros center is a house or street where women can rent tiny one-room apartments for some 80-100 Euros per day. They then solicit customers from behind a window. 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 in Hamburg.

Escort services. Escort services exist in Germany, but are not nearly as prevalent as in the U.S.

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.

Apartment prostitution. There are two forms of apartment prostitution: women working out of their own flats, and organized apartment brothels where women stay only a couple of weeks before being moved to the next one. The latter are often used by trafficking gangs. Both advertise in daily newspapers.

Sauna clubs. Typically, these are houses with swimming pool and sauna in the basement, a large meeting room on the first floor and bedrooms on the second floor. They were mentioned in the rationale of the recent prostitution law as examples of clubs providing good working conditions for the women. This form of prostitution exists sporadically all over Germany, but mainly in the Ruhrgebiet and in the area around Frankfurt am Main. One of the largest clubs of this type is Atlantis, north of Frankfurt.

Sexual services for the disabled. The agency Sensis in Wiesbaden connects prostitutes with disabled customers. Nina de Vries somewhat controversially provides sexual services to severely mentally disabled men and has been repeatedly covered in the media.

Male prostitutes. 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 serves male clients, typically in the street prostitution scene to procure drugs.

Trafficking in women

The trafficking in women from Eastern Europe is organized by gangs from that same region. Most of the women know from the start that they are going to work in prostitution; some others hope for a job as waitress or au-pair. Once in Germany, their passports are taken away and they are informed that they now have to work off the cost of the trip. Sometimes they are sold to pimps or bar owners, who then make them work off the purchase price. They work in bars, apartments 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 than they could at home; others rebel and are threatened or abused.

This illegal slave trade is a major focus of police work in Germany, yet it remains prevalent. Women are often unwilling to testify against their oppressors: the only incentive they have 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.

Legal situation

Prostitution is legal in Germany, though it doesn't quite have the same status as a regular occupation. Income from prostitution is taxed at slightly higher rate than income from normal occupations. Prostitutes even have to charge VAT for their services, to be paid to the tax office. In practice, prostitution is a cash business, and taxes are almost never paid and rarely enforced.

Prostitutes are technically not allowed to advertise, but that prohibition is not enforced. All newspapers carry daily ads for brothels and for women working out of apartments. In addition, sex shops sell magazines specializing in advertisements of prostitutes.

Every city has the right to zone off certain areas where prostitution is not allowed (Sperrbezirk). The various cities handle this very differently. In Munich, street prostitution is forbidden almost everywhere within the city limits, in Berlin it is allowed everywhere, and Hamburg allows street prostitution near the Reeperbahn during certain times of the day. In most smaller cities, the immediate city center as well as residential areas are declared off-limits.

Foreign women from most countries can obtain a three-month tourist visa for Germany without problems. Many of them then work in prostitution. This is technically illegal, as the tourist visa does not include a work permit. Much more problematic is the situation of women who have fallen victim to traffickers (see above).

Pimping, admitting persons under the age of eighteen to a brothel, and affecting persons under the age of twenty-one to take up prostitution are also illegal. The normal age of consent (sixteen) applies to sex with prostitutes. To combat sex tourism, this age of consent even applies to Germans who are visiting other countries.

Legal history

Prostitution was legalized in Germany in the 1920s, to strengthen a law against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Prostitutes had to be registered with local health authorities and submit to regular STD tests. This was handled quite differently in the various areas of the country. In Bavaria, regular HIV tests were required since 1987, but this was an exception. Many prostitutes did not submit to these tests, shying away from 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. The compulsory testing was abandoned in 2001.

Anything done in the "furtherance of prostitution" (Förderung der Prostitution) remained a crime even after 1973. This put the owners of luxury brothels in constant legal danger. Most brothels were therefore run as a bar with an attached but legally separate room rental.

The highest courts of Germany have repeatedly ruled that prostitution "offends good morals" (verstösst gegen die guten Sitten), with several legal consequences. A contract that offends good morals is invalid, so a prostitute could not sue for payment. Prostitutes working out of their apartment could lose their lease. Prostitutes had difficulties entering the German system of health care and social security because of their occupation offending good morals. 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 because it was being used to initiate contacts between customers and prostitutes, which she did not deny. She sued nevertheless, arguing that society's position had changed and prostitution no longer qualified as offending good morals. The judge conducted an extensive investigation and solicited a large number of opinions; eventually he agreed with Weigmann's claim. The prostitution law of 2002 reaffirmed this position. It also removed the general prohibition on furthering prostitution.

Politics

The ruling coalition of Social Democrats and the Green Party attempted to improve the legal situation of prostitutes in the years 2000-2003. These efforts have been criticized as inadequate by prostitute's 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, while supporting the goal of giving 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.

Alice Schwarzer and her branch of feminism rejects all prostitution as inherently oppressive and abusive; they favor a law like that in Sweden, where selling sexual services is legal but buying them is not.

High profile crimes and scandals

There was a murder of six persons in an exclusive 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 boyfriend of a woman who had worked there.

In 2003, Michel Friedman, popular TV talk show host and assistant chairman of the German Jewish community, became embroiled in an investigation of trafficking in women. He had had contact with several escort prostitutes from Eastern Europe who testified that he had repeatedly taken and offered cocaine. After receiving a fine, he resigned his posts.

Also in 2003, well-known artist and art professor Jörg Immendorff was caught in the luxury suite of a Düsseldorf hotel with seven prostitutes (and four more on their way) and some cocaine. He attempted to explain his actions by his terminal illness.

Sources and external links

• B. Leopold, E. Steffan, N. Paul: Dokumentation zur rechlichen und sozialen Situation von Prostitutierten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Schriftenreihe des Bundesministeriums für Frauen und Jugend, Band 15, 1993. (German)
• HYDRA, support organization for prostitutes, also has the text of the new prostitution law
• Scathing criticism of the new prostituion law, by Doña Carmen, a support group for foreign prostitutes working in Germany (German)
• Bundesverband Sexuelle Dienstleistung e.V., association of brothel owners