News of the Restless

German police raid a brothel whose name is one helluva lie.

It all seemed like such a great idea at first: Legalize prostitution in every way, shape and form in Germany. The idea, or so we were given to think, was that prostitutes could finally be accepted as legitimate workers in society, instead of marginalized. They could pay taxes, they would no longer be arrested, et cetera. So prostitution was legalized, and with it, bordellos — to give the women a “safe space to work”, or so the reasoning went.

So what happened? Well, in a nutshell, German women didn’t exactly come flocking to work in those joints as happy hookers. Who wanted to be at the sexual mercy of all comers in a flat-rate, everything-goes, no-condom bordello? Nobody. So the brothel owners and investors (yes, it’s an ultracapitalist venture, through and through, in Germany) had to look outside of the country for employees. And the mafias and motorcycle gangs were more than happy to truck in the women and girls from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria — wherever there was poverty and hunger, basically. They got them hooked on drugs, as it was easier to keep them in line that way. The girls learned just enough German and English to communicate a transaction but not to get by in German society, and the pimps — oh sorry, “business managers” — took their passports. For safekeeping, they said.

But that’s not the only kind of pimping going on in the brothels of “free” German prostitution. There’s another, more insidious type, as exemplified by one of the pimps who brought his girls to work in one of the more infamous clubs — one that was busted a few years back for multiple violations:

A shift in the Paradise can be very long. From 11 a.m. to 3 or 4 a.m. the next morning, the johns need to find a sufficient selection of women waiting. That was the business plan of former owner Jürgen Rudloff.

“It could well be that I said that I’d like my women to be the first ones in the shop in the morning, and the last ones out at night,” says Ilias C. (40), who has the word “Hardcore” tattooed across the back of his neck. Since 2011, he’s been sitting in jail — among other things, for human trafficking and forced prostitution.

He sent his three women to work in the Paradise. He didn’t deal with them delicately. All of them gave him all their earnings. That’s how he brought in 10,000 to 20,000 euros a month. “When they needed money, I gave them some,” he says.

“For what?” asked the judge.

“For clothing,” says the witness.

“In a nudist club?” is the question that the judge hauls him back to the ground of facts with. She also reminds him of the living arrangements when he says that the women could have left at any time. “There was a five-foot high fence around the property, there was video surveillance and a guard dog,” she says.

With these questions, the trial of the Paradise club owner, Jürgen Rudloff, and three others accused of forced prostitution, human trafficking, and fraud, moves into its next round. Since the court has heard from alleged victims of fraud and investors, it’s all about the red light again.

Concretely, the participating pimps and the deciding point of the accusation: whether the accused knew of their violent actions. The first witness to lie was arrested and jailed for perjury on the orders of state prosecutor Peter Holzwarth. A clear signal for the other witnesses from the gangster scene.

The second witness never showed up. He will have to appear at a later time.

Witness #3 testified on Tuesday. He described ways of dealing with women that could at best be called rough. Ibrahim I. (43) speaks with a casualness that gives no hint of regret or distancing. He is musclebound, with tattoos on both arms peeking out of his sweatshirt sleeves.

“You’re twice as big and six times as strong as the women,” says the presiding judge. Why did he get his name tattooed on the women? Because they’re HIS women.

“I got all my women’s breasts enlarged,” reads his business concept.

How does one get women to do all that? “I did it on the love track,” he says — and gives a crash course in going on the make. Establish trust, flatter them, sleep with them, then send them off to work as prostitutes. His main squeeze and side chick vie with each other for his favors. Daily quota for the women: 500 euros. Each john, as a general rule, brings in 50 euros. “If they didn’t make quota, there was trouble. Then I hit them.” Always on the head, never the body, so no one would see the bruises.

Unlike Ilias C., Ibrahim I. said he was a friend of Jürgen Rudloff’s, with whom he regularly met for breakfast and to chat about the state of the world. Ibrahim I., who went back and forth several times between membership in the Hell’s Angels and the United Tribunes, also states that Almir Culum, the world president of the United Tribunes, and his brother Nermin, would often visit the Paradise.

Translation mine.

So there you go, folks…sex capitalism in Germany, like all other forms of capitalism, is a stinking failure. Turns out that no woman or girl just wakes up one morning and decides, “Hell yeah, I’m gonna be a prostitute, work in a nice brothel, and make lots of money the easy way!” Those brothels are not nice places. They’re horrors and shitshows. The money is bad, and the clients are brutal — and the bosses are even worse. It’s not easy money, ever, at least for her.

For the guy who can beat the shit out of her for not bringing home enough of that sweet, sweet bacon, though, it’s the easiest thing in the world. Ten johns a night, honey — and if you can’t manage that, you get your head caved in by your “loverboy“.

Easy peasy.