Prostitution has boomed so significantly since its legalisation in Germany in 2002 that its critics, including radical feminists to Christian conservatives, say that it is now the "bordello of Europe".
According to some estimates, more than a million men in Germany visit sex workers every day.
In the past twenty years, the number of (overwhelmingly female) sex workers has reportedly more than doubled to 400,000, Foreign Policy magazine reported.
Berlin has some 500 brothels; Osnabruck, a small university city, has about 70; another 3000 or so exist across the rest of Germany. Their neon-red lights and windowless facades are even in the picturesque little towns that are known primarily for their cuckoo clocks and gingerbread.
All told, the German sex industry rakes in some 17.7 billion dollars a year.
