Whorehouse in Berlin

6 :30 a.m. : only the sound of the vaccum cleaner disturbs the felted atmosphere inside Artemis, one of the biggest whorehouse of Berlin. 4000 sq. meters “of relaxing mood and pleasures”, open from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. The clean lady says that at the beginning, It is surprising to work there and you should not look too near what you’re cleaning but mentions that the girls are nice and the salary pretty good. Opened in 2005, the building is located near the motorway on the west side of the city that counts in total 700 houses. Inside, the atmosphere is more fine parties than heavy stuff : dim lights, Italian Renaissance paintings, and double windows. Not to mention 2 cinemas and the wellness space which offers hammam, massage or saunas. In the bedrooms, you will notice a discrete sign : “we kindly ask the girls to be careful with the paper tissues”. Decried for the football cup in 2006 for its chain work, Artemis can welcome 600 customers for 100 employees. Mostly people don’t talk about whorehouse but FJJ club, for Frei Körper Kultur (free body culture, popular in Germany) because the girls are naked. The staff is multicultural, the work as well : Französische (blow job with or without condom), or Griechische (anal). Prices are made by the house : 30 minutes costs 60 Euros. After having paid a entrance fee per day of 90 Euros, the girls keep the money of their “services”. Here, no need of training, trial period is 2 days, followed if It is good, of a hiring with a work contract, social security and retirement points. Since the law legalized prostitution in 2002 in Germany, prostitutes are workers like anybody else, assimilated with the status of independent. Sex as freelance opens rights to unemployment insurance and social security. More than 450 000 prostitutes are numbered in the country, against 15 000 to 30 000 in France. Management say that criteria of selection are not based on the face. The girl needs to be nice and mostly discrete. In the wardrobe of the house, baby sitters addresses, HIV tests and acupuncture trainings are indicated where the girls, between 18 and 40 years old, change their jeans and civil identity for leather sighs and stage name. Waiting on the sofa with her robe opened on an integral tan, M. waits to take her position. She’s typing a message to her son with one of her two mobiles. Aged of 29, coming from Romania, she takes the opportunity of closing hours to go shopping at the nearest supermarket. She generally comes 3 days per month in Berlin where she has her room at the top floor. She says It’s clean and she is free of her work hours and her clientele. Less modest body culture, naturist movement or political influence of the feminists favorable to the legalization, in Germany, prostitution is no taboo. The mercantile connection with sexuality is more common than in France. The Schröder government made a lot to legalize prostitution, social and legal. It is the contrary of France which condemn, thanks to the law voted under the influence of our actual president (internal affairs minister at the time) when 59% of French people would accept the re-opening of the whorehouses. This is all the paradox with France : prostitutes pay their taxes but their activity is forbidden. Security, hygiene, protection of the girls against pimps or networks, in Germany, the majority of prostitutes work in houses, massage rooms or bars. Only 3 % work on the road. Police statistics show tha t criminal activity linked to the mafia is diminishing since 2002. But the sex workers would also be more : affected by economical precariousness, a lot of girls coming from Easter Europe are now in the business, encouraged by this normalization. Someone’s working to help the girls working on the street says that legislation did not change much. Prostitution is not like any job and never will, in a house or not, legislated or not. The real problem comes from the economic crisis. Following estimations from taxes office, a prostitute receives 110 Euros per day of work, far away from the same amount in Deutsche Mark (the double) for one job. So the girls accept what they don’t really like, only to be able to pay the rent. Some of the house lost this year 50% of their income because competition is hard : almost 700 houses, massage salons or hostess bars are known and you don’t count the occasional prostitutes. So It is quite difficult to compete with a company like Pussy club which open last summer Its flat rate : unlimited sex + drinks + food, the whole thing for 70 Euros. The local sex industry is not missing of imagination to seduce the customer, where you can find some special rates for the seniors or for the unemployed ones. Some houses refuse to be a meat industry. Last spring, one made a green price, dedicated to customers who come with their bike but was not a great success. In the small salon close to the rooms, one is eating her kebab, wearing her panther thong. For five years, she took a one way from Cuba to Berlin to follow her man. Now she is a single mother. She speaks fluently Spanish, german and English. She numbers her hours spent at the house to which she gives back 50% of her gains. Her monthly salary, that she sends a part to her family, is about 2000 Euro net. The past years, we could earn until 5000 Euros. Now It’s all over but I will never go back in the street.