Prostitution in the corona crisis: some want to work again, others the ban on buying sex

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Room in a brothel in Stuttgart's Leonhardsviertel: Due to the corona crisis, establishments were closed in March

Anna has already tried a lot in the Hamburg Kiez. She worked in the Eroscenter, in peep shows, table dance shops and night clubs. Anna has been a prostitute for 28 years, and for 12 years she has been sitting in a window in Herbertstrasse. In addition to her regular customers, she welcomes walk-in customers here. More than 200 prostitutes work in the alley near the Reeperbahn. Access is only permitted to men over 18. On some evenings she had two or three suitors, says Anna, who wants to keep her last name to herself. On other days she waited forever in her window.

And then the coronavirus came and no one since then.

Brothels, whorehouses and sauna clubs in Germany have been closed since mid-March, and sex work is temporarily prohibited. Anna says she and her colleagues strictly adhered to it. They do not receive any customers and hope that it will continue soon. There is nothing more they can do. It's pretty boring, says the 46-year-old. But the fear of financial ruin is much worse.

In mid-July, hundreds of prostitutes demonstrated in Hamburg's Herbertstrasse for the reopening of the establishments. "The oldest trade needs your help" or "The state is fucking us, but not paying" was written on the posters, their faces hiding behind masks. Prostitutes also took to the streets in Berlin, Cologne and Stuttgart.

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Posters in front of the entrance on Herbertstrasse in Hamburg: More than 200 prostitutes work in the alley near the Reeperbahn

"Sexy Aufstand Reeperbahn" is the name of the group that called for the rally in Hamburg. The milieu feels left in the lurch by politics, rather treated unfairly. Other professional groups such as tattooists, physiotherapists or hairdressers are allowed to work close to people again. But prostitutes are condemned to idleness. The industry has developed a hygiene concept.

According to this, a sheet of plexiglass would separate Anna and a potential customer, and both would have to wear mouth and nose protection. As soon as the guest entered the brothel, he would get a new mask, his hands would be disinfected and a fever would be measured. He would also have to register, just as prostitutes and housekeepers do before they start work and as it has been mandatory in every restaurant since the corona crisis. Group visits are no longer permitted.

Sexual practices are also regulated by the hygiene concept. Washing the genital area and wearing a condom are part of it, the mouth and nose protection is not removed during the act. Three positions are possible, in all of which the sex workers turn their backs on the customers. Oral sex is allowed, kissing is prohibited.

Anna says she can leave the window of her room open all the time during sexual intercourse. Then she would continue to ventilate the room, peel off the sheets, wash and shower. The rooms would be disinfected, flights of stairs and door handles wiped down. Anna wants to go back to work. That's why she took to the streets with her colleagues.

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Prostitutes in their room in Hamburg: clients are not yet allowed to be received here

"We do not want to be disadvantaged, stigmatized or criminalized," says the 46-year-old. She is registered as a prostitute. As a solo self-employed person, she applied for immediate Corona aid and received 2500 euros one-time. In addition, she receives basic security until August 31, the state pays for her apartment. "I'm lucky," says Anna. "Others don't get this help."

Because not all prostitutes are registered. Some live in the country without a residence permit, others do not register for fear of stigmatization. They worry that family or friends may find out how they make a living.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, more than 40,000 people officially engaged in prostitution at the end of 2019. You have a special ID with you, you pay taxes and you have health insurance. Like Anna. If you are not registered, it is difficult to apply for help. Those familiar with the scene estimate that the corona crisis is making the situation worse for those affected. Despite the ban, they continue to work, meet secretly online or visit customers at home because they depend on the money. This means that prostitution is drifting back into the dark.

"All for one, one for all"

Anna on the solidarity among prostitutes

Anna knows women who had no reserves to fly back to their home countries and who at the same time cannot afford a room. In the scene you are there for one another. You couldn't leave a colleague standing on the Reeperbahn. They offer each other places to sleep, help out with money. "All for one, one for all," she says. Nevertheless, the support has limits. "Who is responsible for these women?" Asks Anna - and sees the state as an obligation.

In May, 16 members of the Bundestag from the CDU and SPD called for prostitution to be switched from a temporary to a long-term shutdown. The reopening of the brothels does not help the women, they wrote, among them the trade unionist Leni Breymaier (SPD), the deputy head of the Union parliamentary group and former health minister Hermann Gröhe (CDU) and the physician Karl Lauterbach (SPD).

The women should work in a "living wage". Prostitution is inhumane, destructive and misogynistic. Those affected would be forced to do so. In their letter to the heads of government of the countries, the group of representatives pleaded for a sex purchase ban based on the so-called Nordic model.

In 1999, Sweden was the first country to ban sex. Countries like Norway, Ireland and France followed. The model criminalizes the acquisition of sexual services and thus persecutes the client. Prostitutes are decriminalized, they are offered help to get out of the milieu. (Read an interview about the Swedish prohibition of prostitution: "Women are criminalized")

In the corona crisis, the federal government temporarily relaxed the Prostitution Protection Act. Accordingly, it is actually forbidden to spend the night in the rooms used for sexual services. It is currently permitted in many federal states - as long as there is no prostitution. This is to prevent those affected from becoming homeless.

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Sandra Norak has been fighting for a sex purchase ban for years

A negligent step, says Sandra Norak. Because that would drive women and men even more into dependence on brothels and pimps. "Nothing in the milieu is free. You owe it to others and live even more isolated."

Sandra Norak fell victim to a lover boy while she was a schoolgirl. He promised her great love, she went to buy for him. For six years, Norak, whose real name is different, sold her body. Then she managed to get out. Today she works for the abolition of prostitution. She considers the term sex work to be trivializing. (Read more about Sandra Norak's story here.)

In Norak's experience, whorehouses and brothels are rarely self-determined women. Many of them come from Eastern European countries such as Romania, and their families or partners send them abroad to buy, Norak recalls. Trafficking in human beings is not only promoted by pimps from other people, but also by one's own family as pimps. Later, the women would sit in a sauna club in an industrial area in the middle of nowhere, often without being able to speak the foreign language or knowing which city in Germany they were in. "These women didn't fight for legalization," says Norak. "You didn't dream of working in a large brothel."

Anna from Herbertstrasse finds it outrageous to use the current corona crisis to advance the Nordic model. "I love my job and I made my own choice," says the 46-year-old. "As a German citizen, I have the right to choose my own career." She is fed up with being portrayed as an oppressed and battered woman. Your job is a calling.

In addition, people would need sex; a ban would not mean that needs and demand would disappear. Rather, Anna believes, prostitution would shift more towards illegality. Forced prostitution is already forbidden, investigators in the milieu are out and about. Nevertheless, illegal prostitution is difficult to prosecute. "There are black sheep in every industry," says Anna.

"Nobody has the right to have sexuality with another person."

Sandra Norak

Norak does not accept these arguments. Everyone has the right to sexuality, she says. "But nobody has the right to have sexuality with another person." She experienced how men wanted to live out violent fantasies with her, how former colleagues were raped. A new understanding of prostitution is needed. "We have all gone through evolution. Men have to be in control," says Norak. Prostitution should no longer be available as easily as a pack of cigarettes.

The Nordic model is "the only way to better protect the women affected". Currently, however, Germany is creating lucrative conditions for human traffickers under the guise of legality, says Norak. Forced prostitutes would also register, so registering does not give any assurance that the women are doing it voluntarily. She hopes that paid sex will one day be banned in Germany as well.

On August 31, Anna's basic security will expire in Hamburg. Should prostitution be banned further, she would have to register as a job seeker from September, she says. Anna is scared. That she flies out of her beautiful, big apartment. That she is forced to do another job. Some colleagues at the office have already been asked: "You work close to people, why don't you go to nursing?"

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Demonstration in Hamburg: In other European countries prostitutes are working again, in Germany they fear for their existence

In other countries such as Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium, prostitutes are now allowed to work again. Brothels are still closed in Bavaria, but prostitution is allowed in apartments and hotels. Berlin has permitted sexual services without intercourse since the beginning of August. From September, according to the capital's health administration, sex for sale should be allowed again under strict hygiene requirements.

At the end of July, around 80 prostitutes from Hamburg demonstrated again. Together they moved from Herbertstrasse to Davidswache on the Reeperbahn. The central district office, which is responsible for St. Pauli, promised them easing. According to this, brothels should reopen from September 1, observing a hygiene concept. Provided that the number of infections remains low.

Until then, Anna wants to strictly adhere to the ban. Solidarity with the other women is imperative, she says. Anna wants to go back to Herbertstrasse. And legally.