A new government study shows that Germany’s 2017 prostitution law has had almost no impact. The law was supposed to protect sex workers by requiring registration and enforcing condom use. But in reality, very few sex workers registered, and condom rules are almost impossible to check.
There might be 700,000 people working in the sex industry in Germany, but only a few tens of thousands have registered themselves
The study, nearly 900 pages long, found that in 2023 only about 30,600 sex workers were officially registered. This was a small increase compared to the year before, but still far below the 200,000 registrations the government expected.
Some experts believe there may actually be up to 700,000 people working in prostitution in Germany.
Most registered sex workers are from Romania, Germany, and Bulgaria. The highest numbers are in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, and Baden-Württemberg. Smaller states like Brandenburg and Thuringia report only a few dozen. Interestingly, the small state of Saarland has far more registrations than its size suggests—possibly because many clients cross the border from France, where buying sex is illegal.
Authorities also reported that 2,312 businesses connected to prostitution were officially registered. In 2023, police carried out checks and opened 106 cases against such businesses, usually for running illegal brothels or failing to provide required health certificates. About 62 cases were also started against sex workers themselves.
But when it comes to condom rules, almost nothing has been enforced. Since 2017, only five cases have been recorded where customers wanted sex without a condom. In just three of those cases, fines were given, sometimes as high as 50,000 euros.
The sex workers are pushed to offer AO sex in Vienna as well
In Vienna, many sex workers are pushed to offer AO sex. The main reasons to do this are the pressure from their pimps and the high demand for this service. When the girls are working in cheaper sex studios, they don’t have other options, especially if they want to get clients and money for everyday living.
We wrote a detailed article about the most common reasons why sex workers are offering sex without protection, click on the button to reach it: