Sex work in Germany

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.