Imagine, it's past midnight in downtown Berlin, and the prostitutes pace in front of the Hackescher Mart's stores. Signs of a slow economy are everywhere a sportswear store offers 40 percent markdowns, and bars advertise discounted drinks.
Like so many other businesses, Europe's largest legalized prostitution industry is having to adapt to the economic downturn.
Customers are fewer or more frugal, competition has increased, and more clubs and brothels are offering discounts to drum up business.
Like so many other businesses, Europe's largest legalized prostitution industry is having to adapt to the economic downturn.
Customers are fewer or more frugal, competition has increased, and more clubs and brothels are offering discounts to drum up business.
- Since late 2008, the number of English and American tourists has dropped and the street dynamic has changed, according to one prostitute in her mid-20s who requested anonymity because she did not want her family to know her profession. She still gets customers, she said, but they no longer pay for the extras.
- "We have to be a lot more aggressive now," said the woman, wearing pink jeans and a black corset, who has worked the area for three years. "The customers used to come straight to you. Now they don't ask you as much."
- Nevertheless, she said, the prostitutes in the area have been sticking to a set minimum price about euro80 ($110) for sex.
- "If he doesn't pay our prices then he can't go home with me," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "That simple."
- Prostitution is legal in Germany, with the same rights and benefits as other professions, such as health and unemployment insurance. There are about 450,000 prostitutes nationwide, according to 2008 numbers, with 10,000 in Berlin.
- Streetwalkers like those in the Hackescher Mart make up only about 3 percent, with the remaining 97 percent working in brothels, massage parlors or out of private residences.
- Though the demand for prostitutes' services remains strong, the supply has increased as more people lose their jobs and turn to the profession, said Marion Detlefs, of the German prostitution advocacy group Hydra. The result is increased competition, she said.
- In response, clubs and brothels are increasingly marketing themselves either as high-class, exclusive spas, or as bargain basements of delight.
- The capital's biggest bordello, Artemis, is one of the former, with a wide variety of attractions. For an entry fee of euro80, guests gain access to a gym, free buffet, a pool and two erotic cinemas. The sex costs extra euro60 ($83) for 30 minutes, with set prices for a menagerie of other sexual services. On any given day, the bordello has 60 to 90 women working, said manager Vanessa Rahn.
- Jenna, 30, a soft-spoken bottle blonde who works there, left a job in hotel hospitality to become a prostitute two years ago.
- "It wasn't a very fun job, and I wanted to try something more interesting and fun," she said, requesting that her last name not be used.
- Jenna said she hasn't seen a decrease in the number of her daily customers — usually about 10 men — but they have grown increasingly frugal. She also noted a drop in businessmen customers as fewer attend meetings at a nearby conference center.
- "This is what the girls have been complaining about," Rahn said. "The number of customers is pretty much the same, but men only go once or twice to rooms, not three or four times, like before."
- However, Artemis is working hard at bringing in customers through incentives such as discount cards and lowered prices for taxi drivers and senior citizens. The incentives have meant an increase in the number of regular customers, Rahn said.
- Source: World News
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