Life in Prostitution
The forms of prostitution are diverse. Well-known are mainly brothels or so-called walk through houses where johns can check out the prostitutes before they choose a women and street prostitution. Special forms of street prostitution is trailer prostitution, especially in rural areas, where women stand on the side of the road to attract johns and then serve them in a trailer or other vehicle, and drug related prostitution, where the focus is not on prostitution itself, but on addiction. There are escort services, domina and BDSM studios, and other specialized forms. Increasingly, mixed forms are emerging, especially between pornography and prostitution. For example, johns can order pornographic pictures and films from women and in some cases arrange to have direct sexual contact. Also increasing is apartment prostitution, discussed in more detail below. The johns may pay different prices and the hygienic conditions and ambience may vary. But what all of these forms have in common is that they enable violence and exploitation of women, that women experience the physical and psychological stresses described above, and that women are reduced to objects as products and stripped of their dignity. There are no "good" forms of prostitution.
There are many misconceptions about brothel prostitution. The women here are usually not employed at all, i.e. they do not enjoy labor protection or access to health insurance or social security. The brothel operators do not act as employers, but as room landlords, and the women are formally "self-employed," i.e., they are not subject to rules limiting working hours, paid leave, or similar provisions. If they are sick or cannot work for other reasons, they bear the full risk of lost earnings. The room rent is horrendous and usually amounts to 120-180 € per day. In addition, there are excessive prices for food, hygiene products and security, as well as the flat-rate taxation already mentioned above. In other words, a woman already has to serve about 5 johns just to cover the costs. Then, as a rule, the pimp still holds out his hand, so that hardly anything remains for herself.
So it is not surprising that many women also live and sleep in the brothel, although this is actually forbidden according to the German Prostitution Protection Act (ProstSchG), but an additional apartment is simply too expensive. For pimps and brothel operators it is of course easier to control the women if they live in the brothel. Besides, this way they are always available. Therefore, when brothels were forced to close during the Corona Lockdown, many women suddenly found themselves on the street without a place to live. The fairy tale of being able to make a fortune in prostitution was finally proven wrong in 2020.
For some time now, SOLWODI social workers have been observing that the classic brothel streets are getting emptier. There are fewer clients and fewer prostitutes. However, this does not mean that prostitution is becoming less, rather it is increasingly shifting to so-called appointment apartments with arrangements made online via special online platforms. The Federal Criminal Police Office also reports an increase in residential prostitution in its 2021 situation report on human trafficking. The Covid-19-related closures of official prostitution sites are likely to have accelerated this trend.
These apartments are often not registered and do not always meet the minimum requirements according to §18 German Prostitution Protection Act (ProstSchG), for example, some lack a proper emergency call system or adequate sanitary facilities.
Online, the women are offered in corresponding portals like a product. Johns can filter, for example, by origin, figure, cup size, body hair, services offered, and much more. The profiles are often not managed by the women themselves, but by their pimps. Often they do not even know what is offered in their name. All this makes access to the women more difficult for authorities and also for social workers. Nevertheless, we try to find creative approaches to get in touch with the women and offer support.
