Mega-brothels: Has Germany become 'bordello of Europe'?

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26261221

Mega-brothels: Has Germany become 'bordello of Europe'?

A group of men in red and white robes stroll through the reception area. Women in high heels sit at the bar in a haze of cigarette smoke, chatting to clients and laughing.

This is Paradise, in Stuttgart, Germany - one of the largest brothels in Europe.

And it's legal.

Built at a cost of more than 6m euros (£4.9m), and opened in 2008, it boasts a restaurant, a cinema, a spa and 31 private rooms for the hundreds of male customers it attracts each day.

Germany legalised prostitution in 2002, creating an industry now thought to be worth 16bn euros a year.

By treating prostitution as a job like any other, the idea was to prise women away from the pimps that often run the sex trade.

Pension schemes
Sex workers in Germany can now pay into a pension and demand health insurance.

"You feel safe and you have security. It's not like the street where you don't know what happens with a man," said 22-year-old Hannah, who arrived in Stuttgart after two years working in a brothel in Berlin.

But critics say Germany's liberal approach with its sex laws has spectacularly failed, normalising prostitution and turning the country into what they are now calling the "bordello of Europe".

The number of prostitutes in Germany is thought to have doubled to 400,000 over the last 20 years.

(continued, could put the porn industry out of business if this caught on in the US and UK?)

[mistermack]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26261221

Mega-brothels: Has Germany become 'bordello of Europe'?

A group of men in red and white robes stroll through the reception area. Women in high heels sit at the bar in a haze of cigarette smoke, chatting to clients and laughing.

This is Paradise, in Stuttgart, Germany - one of the largest brothels in Europe.

And it's legal.

Built at a cost of more than 6m euros (£4.9m), and opened in 2008, it boasts a restaurant, a cinema, a spa and 31 private rooms for the hundreds of male customers it attracts each day.

Germany legalised prostitution in 2002, creating an industry now thought to be worth 16bn euros a year.

By treating prostitution as a job like any other, the idea was to prise women away from the pimps that often run the sex trade.

Pension schemes
Sex workers in Germany can now pay into a pension and demand health insurance.

"You feel safe and you have security. It's not like the street where you don't know what happens with a man," said 22-year-old Hannah, who arrived in Stuttgart after two years working in a brothel in Berlin.

But critics say Germany's liberal approach with its sex laws has spectacularly failed, normalising prostitution and turning the country into what they are now calling the "bordello of Europe".

The number of prostitutes in Germany is thought to have doubled to 400,000 over the last 20 years.

(continued, could put the porn industry out of business if this caught on in the US and UK?)

But what is their criticism?

[jaydot]

as i understand it, perth, australia has had a brothel for donkey's years. since there is no diminution in the "oldest profession" despite all measures against it, like the use of drugs, the various governing bodies might as well get with the programme and regularise same.

the brothel shown on telly was a hideously garish, vulgar edifice. are bordellos always in such bad taste?

[cronus]

There's no pleasing some people. A business takes off and it's called a failure?

[Clinton Huxley]

The whole damned country is nothing but a parcel of pimps and whores. I wouldn't give you tuppence for it.

[cronus]

The whole damned country is nothing but a parcel of pimps and whores. I wouldn't give you tuppence for it.

Is that here or there you are on a about Huxley my good fellow? Hard to tell these days.

[Clinton Huxley]

The whole damned country is nothing but a parcel of pimps and whores. I wouldn't give you tuppence for it.

Is that here or there you are on a about Huxley my good fellow? Hard to tell these days.

Good God, I'm talking about the damned Prussians and other hangers-on.

[JimC]

as i understand it, perth, australia has had a brothel for donkey's years. since there is no diminution in the "oldest profession" despite all measures against it, like the use of drugs, the various governing bodies might as well get with the programme and regularise same.

the brothel shown on telly was a hideously garish, vulgar edifice. are bordellos always in such bad taste?

Brothels are legal in most parts of Australia.

[cronus]

as i understand it, perth, australia has had a brothel for donkey's years. since there is no diminution in the "oldest profession" despite all measures against it, like the use of drugs, the various governing bodies might as well get with the programme and regularise same.

the brothel shown on telly was a hideously garish, vulgar edifice. are bordellos always in such bad taste?

Brothels are legal in most parts of Australia.

Not legal here but they are a boom industry otherwise. You know it's tolerated when they spring up next to the police-stations and remain.

[FBM]

It's technically illegal here, but in certain areas of any sizeable city there are places where the police don't do anything to stop it.


I read that somewhere.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

as i understand it, perth, australia has had a brothel for donkey's years. since there is no diminution in the "oldest profession" despite all measures against it, like the use of drugs, the various governing bodies might as well get with the programme and regularise same.

the brothel shown on telly was a hideously garish, vulgar edifice. are bordellos always in such bad taste?

Brothels are legal in most parts of Australia.

Not legal here but they are a boom industry otherwise. You know it's tolerated when they spring up next to the police-stations and remain.

That's called "knowing your market."

[Trinity]

I wish they were legal here, for the main reason that women would be safer and hopefully if enough of them were around, it would severely disable the bastards who make their living grooming. abducting, selling and abusing women.

[Robert_S]

I wish they were legal here, for the main reason that women would be safer and hopefully if enough of them were around, it would severely disable the bastards who make their living grooming. abducting, selling and abusing women.

Very much this!

[mistermack]

There was a documentary the other night about webcam girls, who make a sort of living giving one-on-one ''shows'' on their webcams to internet punters.
They seem to be making some money, although it's a bit cut-throat. But it's legal, working from home, and no chance of violence or stds.
I reckon this will grow and take some business away from the regular prostitutes.
It's safer for the punters too, in the same ways.

I thought I saw a while ago that someone invented a mechanical device that enabled remote wanking by a woman over the net. So you might end up with a combination of that, and webcam show, taking a big lump of the prostitution market.
Not sure I'd fancy that. If it went wrong, it might rip your dick off.

[Svartalf]

gimme a real girl any day, though ones that do it for money are not my thing.