Germany - Facts on Trafficking and Prostitution

Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation

Germany

Trafficking

1,094 cases of trafficking were reported in 1996, compared to 517 in 1993. (Germany's federal criminal investigation office, "German police swoop on suspected sex slavery ring," Reuters, 19 March 1998)

Germany is one the most popular destinations in Europe for women trafficked from Ukraine and Russia. (Global Survival Network, Vladmir Isachenkov, "Soviet Womem Slavery Flourishes," Associated Press, 6 November 1997)

Cases

Twenty four women, from Poland, Russia, Italy, Albania, and Turkey were freed by police during a raid on a German brothel where they were held as slaves and prostituted. Two of the women had been locked up for 7 months without seeing daylight. A criminal gang of sixteen suspects, from Turkey, Italy and Albania were arrested, police are searching for six others. Three Luedenscheid police officers allegedly were working with trafficking network. The operation was one of the largest ever against an organized crime ring in Germany. (Erich Reimann, "Germany Breaks Up Sex Slave Ring," Associated Press, 13 December 1996)

At least 200 women, including girls under the age of 16, were trafficked by one Polish man to Germany and the Netherlands between 1993 and 1996. (Warsaw Voice, 1996, "Trafficking of Women to the European Union: Characterisitics, Trends and Policy Issues," European Conference on Trafficking in Women, June 1996), IOM, 7 May 1996)

Two German lawyers, Bernd Malitzki, 31, and Sabine Pohl-Jovanovic, 37, offered to acquire a Czech girl of 12-14 for "extreme sex games" for DM12,000, if she died they would dispose of the body for DM3,000 (US$1,580). They used the Internet for initial contacts under the nicknames of "Sado-Hangman" and "Leather-Witch." Malitzki said he was a practicing sado-masochist. Police found a soundproofed torture room in their home in Stephanskirchen, near Rosenheim in southern Germany. They were arrested under charges of conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to abuse children and conspiracy to murder. ("German couple on trial for Net torture," Calgary Herald, 7 August 1997)

Prostitution

In Germany, 75% of the prostitutes are foreigners. (Altink, 1995, p.33) ("Trafficking of Women to the European Union: Characteristic, Trends and Policy Issues," European Conference on Trafficking in Women, June 1996, IOM, 7 May 1996)

There are 6,000 - 8,000 women in prostitution in Hamburg, about 70% of them are migrant prostitutes and 50% of those are East European women, from Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic. The majority is controlled by pimps, isolated in apartment-brothels and controlled by Russian mafia organizations. (Hamburg police Department, Lucia Brussa, "Transnational AIDS/STD Prevention Among Migrant Prostitutes in Europe," TAMPEP, 1996)

The second largest migrant group of women in prostitution is from Latin America, mostly from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil. Dominican women are confined to apartments, while those from Ecuador work in the street, or in bars and cabarets. (Licia Brussa, "Transnational AIDS/STD Prevention Among Migrant Prostitutes in Europe," TAMPEP, 1996)

There are between 60,000 and 200,000 women in prostitution in Germany. Foreign women and girls account for about half of the women in prostitution, most of them are illegal immigrants. (Michele Hirsch, "Plan of Action Against Trafficking in Women and Forced Prostitution," p.9, Council of Europe, 1996)

The Eros Center in Kiel is one of Germany’s biggest licensed brothels. The standard price, DM50 (about US$ 30) has not changed since 1992, which means it has dropped to one-third the real value since 1992. ("Giving the customer what he wants...," Economist, 14 February 1998)

The E55 highway from Berlin, Germany to Prague, Czech Republic is lined with hundreds of prostituted women, the cheapest, typically gypsies or Ukrainians can be bought for US$10-20. ("Giving the customer what he wants...," Economist, 14 February 1998)

In 1994-1996 the sex industry scenery, in Hamburg and other parts of Germany, underwent important changes due to the increasing number of women coming from East European countries. (Lucia Brussa, "Transnational AIDS/STD Prevention Among Migrant Prostitutes in Europe," TAMPEP, 1996)

Official Response and Action

Twenty suspected members of a gang of pimps and prostitutes were detained in the biggest raid ever in Germany in March 1998. The police raided 40 apartments and offices in Berlin, Potsdam, and Oranienburg. DM165,000 (US$90,000) was found. ("German police swoop on suspected sex slavery ring," Reuters, 19 March 1998)

Prostitution Tourism

The Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong are some of the primary Asian destinations for organized sex tours from Germany. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

At least 10,000 of estimated 200,000 - 400,000 German sex tourists seek to sexually exploit children. (The Child Help Organization, Duisburg, "A children’s summit in the making?," the Hindu, 1 February 1998)

200,000 German men travel abroad each year as prostitution tourists, many of whom are seeking girls under the age of 14. (Child welfare experts, Emma Thomasson, "Germany Launches Offensive on Child Sex Crimes," Reuters, 29 July 1997)

Law and Policy

Bonn Germany passed a law in 1993 to convict citizens for having sex with minors abroad, but prosecutions have been rare since and foreign officials ignore the reality of prostitution tourism. (Emma Thomasson, "Germany Launches Offensive on Child Sex Crimes," Reuters, 29 July 1997)

Pornography

Case

A suspect detained in connection with the international child pornography network based in the Netherlands had confessed to sexually abusing his 12-year-old son over a period of 18 months and to having taken a photograph of his son which was later posted on Internet site for child-porn pictures. ("German police detain child porn ring suspect," Reuters, 24 July 1998)

A 13-year-old German boy downloaded more than 100 pornographic images from the Internet onto a disk and sold them. ("German schoolboy sold child porn from Internet: police," Agence France Presse, 1 August 1997)

Official Response and Action

Raids in seven German states, conducted as part of a crackdown on a worldwide internet-based pedophile ring, targeted 18 people, said Germany's Federal Criminal Agency (BKA). (Jill Serjeant, "Police swoop on global child porn ring," Reuters, 2 September 1998)

German investigators have detained five more suspects as part of a worldwide crackdown on an Internet child pornography ring and still more could be arrested. The Federal Criminal Agency (BKA) said a total of 23 people had been detained in Germany since the coordinated operation began. Most were released after questioning. Suspects from Berlin, Stuttgart and Naumburg had confessed to exchanging child pornography and information over the Internet, German police said. The BKA said it did not have a precise picture of how many computer terminals and videocassettes had been seized. In some cases, thousands of files had been seized. ("German police hold five in new child porn raids," Reuters, 3 September 1998)

In a German court case, a former CompuServe employee was convicted of aiding and abetting the spread of pornography. As CompuServe subscribers could access the material from the web, the court decided that the employee had facilitated the spread of pornography on the Internet. (Andrew Beattie, "Crackdown on pornography raises prosecution fears," Scotsman, 9 September 1998)

Organized and Institutionalized Sexual Exploitation and Violence

Evidence in British documents from World War II report that SS men and "top Nazis" were involved in exploiting and abusing women during their service in the war. Munich-based Party chief Christian Weber was notorious before the war for his exploitation of women. A German lieutenant reported seeing a party given by Weber where a naked girl had been strapped to a roulette wheel and was later found unconscious. SS Chief Heinrich Himmler, who planned the genocide against the Jews, was the protector of a cult that met in an eastern German castle for sex to the high-priestess with the Berlin State Opera. A German plane was also used as an airborne brothel, and a Norwegian ship as a floating brothel. The German consul conducted "conspicuous activities" in Casablanca, Morocco, with local men and boys. (Nazis mixed was with sex," AFP, 22 July 1998)

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Donna M. Hughes, Laura Joy Sporcic, Nadine Z. Mendelsohn and Vanessa Chirgwin