Prostitution in Germany: Encyclopedia II - Prostitution in Germany - Forms and extent of prostitution

Prostitution in Germany - 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 the 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, still others use hotel rooms. With the 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.

Eros centers. An eros center is a house or street where women can rent tiny 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 set by the prostitutes; they start at 30-50 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 in Hamburg. The largest brothel in Europe is the eros center Pascha in Cologne, a 12 story building with some 120 rooms for rent.

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. Prices are set by the bar owner, and the money is shared between owner and prostitute.

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. Women are typically nude or topless. The women usually pay an entrance fee and then keep all money they receive from customers; prices are set by the club's owner. In some clubs, the money is shared between prostitute and owner. This form of prostitution, which was mentioned in the rationale of the recent prostitution law as providing good working conditions for the women, exists sporadically all over Germany, but mainly in the Ruhrgebiet and in the area around Frankfurt am Main. Among the largest clubs of this type was Atlantis, located north of Frankfurt and closed after a police raid in 2004, and Artemis in Berlin, opened in the fall of 2005. (Most public saunas in Germany have nothing to do with sex work of any kind, and customers that mistake them for sex clubs can get in serious trouble.)

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 but not exlusively in the street prostitution scene to procure drugs.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Forms and extent of prostitution", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki