World Cup had little impact on sex trade
2006-07-05

Category Human Trafficking Brothels Sex Tourism Nations Germany City Berlin Metropolitan Berlin Event 2006 Soccer World Cup

The foyer in Berlin's biggest brothel sports beer flagons shaped like soccer balls and its big screen theater showed live World Cup matches -- but for all the anticipation, the tournament has not led to the huge spike in business the German sex industry had hoped for.

The news may come as a relief for those who fretted increased demand could lead to more trafficking of women forced into prostitution -- and it hasn't been received all that badly at the brothels either.

Artemis, which opened in September near Berlin's Olympic stadium with an eye on World Cup business, had been expecting as many as 500 customers per day. The actual number of men has been about half that. Still, the business has been steady and -- more importantly -- none of the fears of soccer hooligans descending upon them has come to pass either.

"We're really happy," said manager Vanessa, who would only give her first name. "There was no stress here -- all soft and easy, thank God -- though it's not over yet."

Germany had predicted an influx of 1 million visitors for the soccer tournament. By the time the World Cup ends on Sunday, however, the German Center for Tourism now says the total number will reach double that.

The tourists, however, appear to have their minds more on soccer than sex.

"The hoped-for increase in business didn't happen," said Cologne police spokesman Burkhard Jahn. He said the city saw no noticeable increase in prostitutes, and that brothels were reporting "that the women were all bored."

Many have suggested that soccer's group atmosphere -- whether in playing the game or celebrating or commiserating -- does not translate well to the typically furtive nature of the sex trade.

"Football and beer go well together," Jahn said. "Football and prostitution are apparently not as great a combination."

Though there have been reports of lines out the doors of some bordellos, there have been others claiming scores of empty beds. The truth seems somewhere in between, said Ulrike Helwerth, of the National Council of German Women's Organizations.

"We've heard both, some bordellos say it's been really good and others say it's been really slack," Helwerth said. "There's all things in every direction but in any case, there's no evidence it's way up anywhere."

Helwerth's organization launched a campaign ahead of the World Cup aimed at getting authorities to crack down on the trafficking of women forced into the business, praising places like Artemis as establishments where many of Germany's estimated 400,000 legal prostitutes can work safely.

With the expected uptick in customers, the agency and others had predicted an increase in forced prostitutes would also follow. With the media coverage around the World Cup in full gear, the concern over forced prostitution attracted international attention, including in the United States where a congressman suggested the country be reclassified as an "egregious violator" of human trafficking.

But across the board in all of the cities where matches were played, police said they did not see any increase in forced prostitution -- or in visits to the legal brothels either.

Most cities said it was business-as-usual, while Nuremberg reported a 10 percent increase in legal prostitutes and Munich reported a sharp spike at the beginning of the tournament, which kicked off June 9, only to see it trail off quickly.

"At the start of the World Cup we saw an increase of 50 to 60 percent registered" prostitutes said Peter Breitner, of the city police's organized crime division. But, he added: "Most of the women went back home, and we're now back to normal levels. Many tourists and families from all around the world are traveling to Germany, but they're not coming here to visit a bordello in Munich."

Helwerth said that it is too early to tell exactly how many prostitutes came in from outside the country.

"We have different information from different places -- the prostitute circles say there was no greater number, but the businesses say they've had a lot more women, mostly from eastern Europe, asking them to work there," she said.

She also questioned the assertion that there was no increase in forced prostitution, noting that many police agencies said they conducted no special raids to check papers.

"We know that forced prostitution and human trafficking are crimes that one can only find when one is looking for them," she said. "The picture is very sketchy."

Some brothels have reported almost no customers on game days, but for Artemis -- within walking distance of Olympic Stadium, which seats some 75,000 and features a nearby outdoor viewing area that has regularly attracted another 20,000 -- the matches have been a boon.

"It has worked out well," Vanessa said. "We carry the games live in our erotic cinema and quite a few of our guests watch them from there."