We use cookies to improve our service for you. You can find more information in our data protection declaration. Prostitutes across Germany have been taking to the streets to demand the lifting of a coronavirus-related ban on sex work. Many of them are from eastern Europe and can no longer send money home to their families. Elena is a sex worker from Romania. She says she has not worked for five months and is finding it difficult, both financially and emotionally.
Elena, who works in a "big brothel" in the large western German city of Cologne, has been one of the regular participants. Read more: Coronavirus: A devil's bargain for Dutch prostitutes. Sex work is legal in Germany but was banned when the government brought in widespread restrictions on civil and public life in a bid to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Since August Bavaria has been permitting sexual services again, but brothels still have to stay closed β and Berlin will permit some sexual services again starting August 8.
But in the rest of the country the ban on prostitution remains in place, although restrictions on spas, tattoo studios and wellness-massages have mostly been lifted. Elena came to Germany from Romania two and a half years ago, leaving behind her then two-year-old daughter Natalia with her parents. She wanted to earn money to support her mother, who had become very ill. Elena, who is in her thirties, says she wants to provide a better life for her daughter, who she describes as "very intelligent.
Since arriving in Germany, Elena has only been home three times to visit Natalia and she misses her a lot. But Elena has also been enjoying her time in Germany. She's wearing a red t-shirt with the word "limitless" on it and her protest placard reads "legal statt illegal" legal not illegal.
Read more: Inside the 'battery cage' β prostitution in Germany from Many of the migrant sex workers are women who travel from poorer eastern European countries within the EU such as Romania and Bulgaria, like Elena.
