Making money from prostitution will be harder in Germany in the future. Both prostitutes and brothels will be subject to stricter controls. A new law that came into effect on July 1st provides for new regulations.
"In this country it is more difficult to open a kiosk than a brothel," said former Family Minister Manuela Schwesig a year ago, when she presented the bill to the Bundestag.
Many prostitutes work in Germany in inhumane conditions. No one controls the conditions under which they work in brothels.
According to the new Law, prostitutes must in the future be registered and consulted in public health centers. Even brothels in the future will be allowed to work, only if they meet all the hygienic, spatial and health conditions.
The new law prohibits "flatrate" brothels - those that allow you to request sex as often as you want in brothels based on a fixed price, and also prohibits parties known as "rape-gang-bang" - which are essentially about buying sex in a group and where a woman must satisfy the desires of many men. Sex without condoms is also prohibited in the future. Men who visit prostitutes may also be penalized if they have accepted the services of forced prostitutes while being aware of this fact.
But the new laws have caused panic in the prostitution industry. Silvia Vorhauer from the Dortmund Midnight Mission Center, which offers counseling to prostitutes who want to leave the profession, says that "panic is spreading." Many women are afraid of the changes with the new law. According to Vorhauer, they say, "I can't officially register and move around with such a document." Many would rather stop working in this profession.
Dortmund Center Councilor Silvia Vorhauer sees the registration requirement as a new form of torture for women working in prostitution. "Why can't they just go to the tax office and register there?" According to Vorhauer, registering at administrative offices will "increase the stigmatization and criminalization of prostitutes."
With the new law, Berlin is seeking to correct the consequences of the 2002 law, which was seen as a liberating blow to the legal regulation of prostitution. But only one percent of prostitutes have managed to sign contracts as sex workers since the law came into force. Whether the new law will succeed is unknown.
Germany's multibillion-dollar prostitution market, which reportedly employs 200.000 to 500.000 people, is quite flexible. /DW/
