On November 8th, 2022 a study of “Men who pay for sex in Germany and what they teach us about the failure of legal prostitution: a 6-country report on the sex trade from the perspective of the socially invisible ‘freiers’” was released, that questioned and investigated sex buyers perspectives in 6 different countries. Germany, often named as a largest brothel of Europe, has legal prostitution since II WW, however the consequences of such choice mostly affect the most vulnerable and discriminated – women and girls from ethnic and racial minorities, poverty, social risk environments and migrants.

The results were estimated by questioning 96 sex buyers in Germany among whom the majority identified as Germans. 41% of them claimed buying sex from several times a month to once a month, 11% of them buy sex once a week or more often and 49% buy sex once every few months. The average age of sex buyers when they first bought sex in Germany were 22 years old, however the age range goes from 14 year old to 70 years old. More than a half of questioned sex buyers were in relationship at the time they were buying sex from prostituted persons. German sex buyers paid for sex for an average of 55 prostituted women in their lifetime. And only 1% of all sex buyers in Germany reported trafficking to authorities, while 55% of them observed trafficking or pimping.

(Melissa Farley, Inge Kleine, Kerstin Neuhaus, Yoanna McDowell, Silas Schulz, Saskia Nitschmann, Men who pay for sex in Germany and what they teach us about the failure of legal prostitution: a 6-country report on the sex trade from the perspective of the socially invisible ‘freiers, 2022)

Legalizing prostitution doesn’t make it safer for those in prostitution. It only makes it more profitable for pimps and traffickers and grows demand of sex buying culture.