The #Pascha was until recently German's biggest brothel: 10 stories high, with 126 rooms. Reactions range from sadness over "good ol' times" coming from sex buyers, to joy from those opposed to the sex trade, to concern about "good work places lost." bbc.com/news/world-eur…
Nearly everyday I encounter the assumption that a place like the Pascha is what a modern society should strive for, cause it affords legitimacy, dignity & safety to the women in it - the assumption being that legal brothels only employ women there by choice & are low on violence.
This is not true and I'm only going to a list a few facts to get this story straight: First of all the brothel was built, because the city government of Cologne wanted women out of the inner city, away from respectable parts of town, where people "don't want to see that."
Women in prostitution did not want to be in a more isolated place in a poorer part of town and neither did anyone ask the residents of the area, if they consented to having their businesses and their safety comprimised by the presence of mega-brothel teeming with pimps.
Because it did teem with organized crime. Over the years both the owner & several employees were arrested for a variety of crimes including drug smuggeling, serious bodily injury, systematic tax evasion and exploitation of women & girls without passports. rundschau-online.de/nur-geldbusse-…
You might think the presence of partially armed strongmen security would have at least prevented violence against women in the #Pascha, but no: In 2016 for example a sex buyer attacked a woman seriously injuring her, exposing the silicone in her breasts. focus.de/regional/koeln…
Also in 2016 a sex buyer almost strangled a woman in one of the #Pascha rooms to death. He suddenly began severely strangeling her during "sex", giving her bloodshot eyes and making her loose conciousness. He wanted to rob her to pay for his gambling debts express.de/koeln/lebensla…
In 2006 a sex buyer attacked a woman in the #Pascha brothel with a knife, stabbing her mouth and throat, almost killing her. The security pimps did intervene and beat him senseless, but this doesn't change that the women will carry that trauma for life. ksta.de/pascha-prostit…
In 2003 a woman (28) from Thailand, going by "Cat", was stabbed in her torso and belly 14 times by a sex buyer while in her room in the legal #Pascha megabrothel and died. The brothel owner promised better security, but we already know what came of that. sexindustry-kills.de/doku.php?id=pr…
If any of you had people trafficked, strangled, stabbed and murdered at your work place - you'd leave. But the women at the #Pascha had to go right back the next day. Because the reality of #prostitution is that women fear violence from men every single day and for good reason.
The #Pascha is by far not the only legal brothel in Germany with cases of trafficking/pimping or #VAW. I compiled an incomplete list here: dieunsichtbarenmaenner.wordpress.com/establishments/ This list includes most major brothels in the country and that's just those were there is conclusive evidence.
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