Behind anonymous doors and windows in East Berlin’s silent and deserted streets is where you’ll find women exercising the worlds eldest trade. Souls wishing to find a quick comfort away from the daily feeling of loneliness or frustration come to these apartments to warm themselves in the professional and distant bodies of these experienced ladies. We are far from street prostitution and racket, because the legalization of prostitution in Germany has seen the wide spreading of the trade to hundreds of private flats seemingly self governed by women and by figures old to the job, like the Puff Mutters. They are the ones who answer the phone and let you in from the street, who come to the door and welcome you in, assuring the clients can have the best 15 minutes, sometimes more and sometimes a lot less. They make sure the girls, who often rent a room out for 100 to 150 euro per day, can be safe with the client who chooses them or who come specifically for them. Although the atmosphere in the common room is cheerful as well as cynical, in the rooms and corridors, all is silent and intimate, and once in the room where I take the portraits the girls become embarrassed and almost fearful of the camera. They reveal a femininity and fragility which seems in contrast with their job, which faces man after man without the hint of hesitation and fear.
Prostitution in Germany is legal and widespread. In 2003, the government changed the law in an effort to improve the legal situation of prostitutes. However, the social stigmatization of prostitutes persists, forcing most prostitutes to lead a double life. Studies in the early 1990s estimated that about 150,000 - 500,000 women and some men work as prostitutes in Germany. The prostitutes' organization puts the number at 400,000, and this is the number typically quoted in the press today.
Apartment prostitution. (Wohnungspuffs) There are many of these advertised in the newspapers. Sometime run by a single women, sometimes by a group of roommates and sometimes as safehouses for traffickers.
Since 2001 prostitutes and brothels are allowed to advertise. Many newspapers carry daily ads for brothels and for women working out of apartments. Many have websites on the Internet. In addition, sex shops sell magazines specializing in advertisements of prostitutes.
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