Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany. With its almost two million people, the city is the center of media, finance and gastronomy in Germany. But this is only one side of Hamburg, the light side. During the night, the center of the city is moved from the blocks around the court house to those around the infamous pleasure street called Reeperbahn. The entertainment is primarily aimed at young men and what draws them there are the strip clubs, brothels and drugs.
At Reeperbahn and the surrounding blocks, the brothels are close to one another. Sex has nothing to do with love or passion here, sex is business and legal. The streets are brothels too. Buying sex on the street is usually even cheaper than inside a brothel. Lucrative business The three biggest illegal trades are drugs, human trading and weapons. These trades are sadly more lucrative than most legal ones.
At Reeperbahn, all three work together. The women are often from the former Eastern bloc, that is Russia, Ukraine, Estonia etc. They come to Germany with hopes of a better future, with promise of jobs like assistant or secretary. It sounds like something which comes up a lot in discussions about sex trafficking and is perhaps hard to believe but the terrible truth is that this is a fact in many cases of human trade in the sex industry. There is also street prostitution, which can look like an independent woman is selling sex, but this form of sex trade works like a brothel as well.
Most of the prostitutes on the streets have an apartment to return to with their customers, though the apartment is usually owned by a third party. There is plenty of drugs on the streets and in the brothels. Many prostitutes become addicts, probably to be able to go on with such a difficult lifestyle. Drugs often lead to conflict and drug-related conflicts are often solved with armed violence, something Hamburg has had trouble with for a long time.
This costs a lot to Hamburg and yet, no connections to the widespread sex trade has been found. A report from the city written a few years ago states that the legalization of sex purchases has helped the sex selling women to better terms and subsequently a better life. This is quite hard to believe when you walk along Reeperbahn. Observations I spent a Saturday night at Reeperbahn to see how this business works. Many of these women were barely even women but girls.
