Legalizing Prostitution: From Illicit Vice to Lawful Business (25 page)

Customers are a mixed group. Male tourists are present at any time of day, as this red-light area is just a few blocks from Frankfurt’s main train station. Business spikes at five to six p.m., when men leave their jobs. A large client pool consists of young, Turkish men. Facing traditional barriers on premarital sex with Turkish women, the men may visit sex workers instead. The brothel owner tells me that during the Ramadan period, Turks stop buying sex, and the prostitutes complain about the dramatic drop in business—demonstrating just how many of the clients come from this population.

Third parties experience stigma by virtue of their involvement in sexual commerce. The owner I interviewed entered the brothel business 30 years ago, when he was then running a dance club. His brother owned a brothel, facilitating his transition from dance club to brothel. The fact that such business involvement was “in the family” made the transition easy for him: “I never had a problem with it.” But he is sensitive to how others view him. He
lives in a village outside Frankfurt, and only his close friends know that he owns and manages an Eros Center. He says, “We can’t tell anyone what we do. It’s very difficult for us. We have to live two lives.”

The owner also complains about the police, claiming that they conduct raids to inspect workers’ documents without having reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. When I asked if he ever meets with the police outside the brothel in order to forge a better relationship, he laughs:

The police don’t want to have contact with us. They see prostitution as an immoral activity. They like to keep it as it is, so they can make [negative] claims about us. Police don’t want positive relations with owners. They like to tell people that they are not close to the owners and make it seem like a criminal business.

Officials at the sex workers’ organization Doña Carmen concur that the police have a generally antagonistic relationship with the brothel owners in Frankfurt’s main RLD. This is clearly inconsistent with a model of “best practices” in a system of legal prostitution, in which the police should strive to protect the rights of all parties concerned rather than acting in an adversarial or indiscriminate manner.

Like the hotel-brothels, the women working in FKK and other sauna clubs are freelancers, not employees who would be eligible for social security and other benefits. The women pay an entry fee just like the male customers (ranging from €25 to €80), and they receive a percentage of the alcohol drinks they sell customers as well as the entire fee for their sexual services. (Alcohol is not free because that might encourage men to get drunk and unmanageable and because selling drinks provides extra income for both the women and the clubs.) The entry fee for providers puts them at some economic risk: they must pay the fee even on days when they have no customers. Standard prices are €50 for the first half hour of sexual contact, €50 for each additional half hour, and additional charges for special services such as anal sex, two women, cunnilingus, and so on. The kind of service available depends on the provider, but generally they allow extensive foreplay (e.g., kissing, touching) and uncovered blow jobs—practices that are not usually on the menu in window prostitution and hotel-brothels. The services available at specific establishments are described by clients on online message boards.

The atmosphere in sauna clubs differs radically from that in hotel-brothels. The clubs vary in size and amenities, but they usually have a pool, a
sauna, food, and drink. Clients walk around in towels or robes, the women are in various states of undress (scantily clad, topless, or nude), and the two parties engage in conversation, flirtation, touching, or other activities, which may or may not lead to sex. There are public areas where everyone is visible as well as private and semiprivate areas. Some clients engage in sex publicly, allowing other patrons to watch, but most prefer the privacy of a closed room.

Some men come to the club for relaxation only, and the women typically leave these men alone, not pressuring them to spend time talking with them or having sex. Women have the right to refuse services to any particular man. Clients do not select a provider from a catalogue or lineup as in traditional brothels; the connections are much more deliberative, with one party approaching the other, chatting, and later deciding if they want to take things to the next level. These clients like to “connect” with a woman prior to sexual activity; in online discussion boards, clients say that one of the main attractions of sauna clubs is that they can “hang out” with a woman both before and after sex.
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And simply being
in the presence
of several beautiful, available women for an extended period of time is viewed as an advantage over other sex venues. An additional benefit is that clients can “sample” several providers socially before making a decision. As one client stated, “You can ‘be amid women’ for a while, focus on one, maybe decide you aren’t ‘clicking’ with that one, move to another, go back to the first, and only later go for the ‘main event’ with the right one.”
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This man noted that such screening was simply not possible when hiring an escort or window worker or even at most traditional brothels, where the socializing time is more truncated than it is in FKKs.

In online discussion boards, clients typically sing the praises of the FKK saunas in generic terms, even if they have had a poor or mediocre experience with a particular provider. As Monk69 commented, “The atmosphere was extremely casual and felt very safe. What a great way to hobby! … I think a lot of American hobbyists’ jaws would simply drop if they realized how good the German’s have it.”
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Another client elaborates:

The FKK Clubs in Germany are the ticket if you like model perfect women and a high class venue. For about 50 euros I gained access to a club which reminded me of a chateau. Very upscale with open bar and excellent food, all included in the entry fee. I was there on a Tuesday and there were over 30 beautiful women to choose from. A must for anyone looking for a high-end erotic experience!
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When novices ask what they can do with all the “down time” if they spend several hours in a FKK, the responses of regular clients throws light on club dynamics. When Makelove asked, “Do you ever get bored?” other posters responded with a unanimous “no.” One wrote, “The FKKs are a pretty social environment. I have met and struck up interesting conversations with a variety of men and women. … Some gents … turned out to be right good buddies.” Another customer stated, “These places are designed to be men’s clubs and not merely brothels.” And others informed Makelove of the sauna room, pool, masseur, TV, food and drink, wireless Internet, and beautiful women walking around. Consider this description of The Palace in Frankfurt: “So many amazing women! I very much enjoy the food, facilities, music, and atmosphere as well. More than the other clubs, The Palace just feels like home to me.” Another client fondly reminisced about The Palace’s rotating dancing platform, where he saw “middle-aged men with twenty-something girls in perfect harmony dancing with rhythm and grace.”
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Posters doubted that anyone could get bored in such a place. The sauna clubs also seem well suited for those who seek a “girlfriend experience,” given the amount of time one can spend with a provider. One client remarked, “Hanging out with the girls is fun and one of the assets of visiting FKK sauna clubs.”
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At many of these clubs, clients can spend around a half hour of “social time” visiting with a woman before retiring to a room for sex.

Another man, Guava, was concerned about the possibility of pimps and procurers being involved in German saunas:

This greatly alarms me, for I have always considered that FKK women were generally there voluntarily, and probably most are. My question is: does anyone know of any FKKs to avoid in this regard? … A big chunk of the freedom I feel in partaking of the FKK experience is that I imagine it’s coercion-free, for the most part, as compared to other venues.
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None of those who responded identified an FKK to avoid, and their responses ranged from “you never know” whether some individuals have been coerced to “extremely few women in legal FKKs are enslaved.” Guava thanked the others for validating what he already believed to be the case—that FKKs rank low on the coercion scale.

Naturally, there are men who complain about specific experiences—such as a provider who charged double when a client orgasmed twice in 30 minutes; a woman who violated house rules and charged for time spent interacting in the lounge and in the sauna (not just in the private room); and sex
workers who renege on agreed-on services, are very conscious of time, and try to get the man to spend a minute over the base half-hour time so that she can charge for the second half hour.
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It is clear that the women and the clubs vary considerably with respect to work styles—that is, how conversational, aggressive, money focused, GFE oriented, or time conscious they are. Some places are rated less favorably than others on these measures. One customer described the Palace in Frankfurt as “not for rookies”: “Lots of sharks among the girls, lots of upselling … and don’t forget to clock your sessions. Yes, I’m serious. Go, say, 2 minutes over, a lot of girls will try to work you for an extra €50.”
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Clients are advised to wear a watch and keep checking it. Similar cautionary tales are offered by men who have visited other sauna clubs, but problems appear to be more common at some clubs than others:

The stopwatch thing is more important at Palace than Oase or World; it’s a question of what the management will let the girls get away with. … I actually boycotted [Palace] for a couple of years because they treat the guys like marks. I don’t see that bullshit happening at World or Oase, I really don’t. Palace … could care less about the punters [clients], and why should they? Whenever the Messe [a nearby convention center] is booked for something, they’re jammed solid [with customers] every night. But, there are some wonderful ladies who work Palace too.
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The providers have their issues with clients as well. Writing a post titled “How to Be a Good Guest at a FKK,” Shiatsu and Cordelia (who worked at FKK World near Giessen) offered this code of conduct for clients:

• Money: a guest who claims not to have money with him “shows a lack of respect.” And “don’t try to get the girl to undercut the normal club prices or whine for extra time for free.”

• Hygiene: the favorite guests are “very clean.”

• “Be friendly”: say hello to “all girls even if you don’t want to go with them.”

• “Don’t grope the girls in the corridors.”

• “Please don’t talk about the other girls, your comments will only get back to the girl concerned. … The girls hear a lot more than you would ever imagine.”

• “Make sure you go with girls who appear to make their guests cheerful and who don’t dispose of them in five minutes.”

• “Keep your head—try not to be obviously drunk or stoned—it acts like a magnet as girls will try and take advantage of you and relieve you of more money. … Not all girls are saints!”
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Clients report that the management at most clubs will side with the woman if a man makes a complaint.

There is only one sauna club inside Frankfurt’s main RLD. The Miami Sauna Club (shown in
figure 5.6
) is much smaller and has fewer amenities than the more upscale clubs elsewhere in Frankfurt (Palace, Sudfass) and its suburbs. One night, I spoke to the doorman at Miami. The entry fee is €10 plus one drink (priced €8–€10), and the customer is under no obligation to buy drinks for a woman, but a menu on the door lists a “Lady Cocktail” for €40. The doorman tells me that €50 will buy “a half hour of massage, a blow-job without condom, and sex with condom”—quite inexpensive for all three services. He tries to coax me inside by inviting me to peer through a small window, where I see three topless women beckoning. A client writing online reported that his experience one night involved “7 Romanian girls who all played with our JTs [penises] despite the fact that we did not buy them drinks” and that the woman he selected for sex “failed to deliver the promised DFK [deep French kissing] and BBBJ [bareback blow job, without a condom].” When he told her that lying about services would not yield repeat customers, she told him that customers rarely returned anyway.
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Miami has less need to build a regular clientele because of its location in the midst of the tourist-heavy RLD, with high turnover in the client pool.

Figure 5.6. Miami Sauna Club.