There's a New Kid in Town?
Article in Berlin newspaper talks about a yuge new bordello in planning, with even more rooms than Artemis. Has been tied up in court for 5 years and finally just got the green light. But who knows, there may yet be more legal wranglings. Theoretically, in a year or so there might finally be some competition to Westkreuz. Just hope the new BER airport construction crew is not involved in the renovations.
Original article: [URL]https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/streit-um-haus-in-der-englischen-strasse-klage-gegen-grossbordell-in-charlottenburg-abgewiesen/25880830.html[/URL].
Germany helps sex workers idled by covid-19
From The Economist:
Social distancing and prostitution.
Germany helps sex workers idled by covid-19.
But they are still much worse off than before the pandemic.
Europe Jun 4th 2020 edition.
Jun 4th 2020 Berlin The evening sun is beating down on a small crowd gathered in Schöneberg, a district of Berlin, to mark the 45th International *****s' Day. But Isabelle, a Macedonian transgender prostitute, is gloomy. "I remember how it was before," she says. CIS women walked the streets north of the railway bridge, trans women to the south. Not these days. "I feel depressed," says Isabelle. "It's our job, you know?" Colleagues describe overbearing police, price-gouging hotels and clients seeking outrageous "corona-discounts".
Few industries have been as pummelled by covid-19 as sex work, which in Germany is legal and regulated. Like many workplaces, brothels had to close in March. Yet although massage parlours and nail salons have reopened, prostitutes have been left in limbo. Some, such as Undine de Rivière in Hamburg, are innovating with hands-off services like fetish videos or erotic-hypnosis recordings. But it is hard to make a living that way, and few have the skills to try. Many migrants from eastern Europe, who are thought to make up more than half of Germany's 400,000-1 m sex workers, went home before the borders closed.
Read the rest here: [URL]https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/06/04/germany-helps-sex-workers-idled-by-covid-19[/URL].