Could changing Germany’s sex work laws make sex workers less safe?

Germany is debating a partial ban on prostitution. Sex workers warn the Nordic Model could increase danger, secrecy and exploitation.

Anne, now 40, was 18 years-old when she had her first client.

At the time, she was earning €6.50 per hour at a Burger King in Frankfurt am Main while studying for her Abitur, Germany’s university entrance exam. Looking for a better income, she found a solution in sex work, starting in massage studios, brothels, and as an escort.

“It was a very pragmatic decision,” Anne told me in German at a café in the east Berlin district of Friedrichshain. “The first time I had money in my hand, I thought, cool, I’ll do that again.”

Germany’s Prostitution Laws — And Why They’re Changing

A couple years earlier in 2002, Germany had introduced the Prostitutionsgesetz (Prostitution Law), legally recognising prostitution as labour and giving sex workers — on paper — access to enforceable contracts, social insurance, and employment protections. Fifteen years later, the Prostituiertenschutzgesetz (Prostitution Protection Law) tightened regulation: it mandated personal registration, health counselling, and a licensing regime for brothels and other establishments.

Photo by Thierry Biland on Unsplash

But now the entire legal system of prostitution in Germany is on the table: Last month, Bundestag president Julia Klöckner of the centre-right CDU reignited debate by describing Germany as the “Puff Europas” — the brothel of Europe — and calling for both prostitution and the purchase of sex to be criminalised.

“I firmly believe that we need to finally ban prostitution and the purchase of sex in this country,” Klöckner said.

Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) quickly threw her support behind Klöckner’s demand. “Prostitutes should be exempt from punishment and receive comprehensive assistance to leave the industry,” said Warken.

Both politicians are urging Germany to adopt the so-called Nordic Model. First introduced in Sweden in 1999 and later in Norway in 2009, the approach bans the purchase of sexual services and any organised facilitation of them — while leaving the act of selling sex legal. In practice, it shifts criminal penalties onto clients and third parties, not sex workers themselves.

Why Sex Workers Warn the Nordic Model Could Increase Risk

Supporters of the Nordic Model often present it as an anti-exploitation strategy: by criminalising buyers and third parties, they argue, the state can shrink demand, weaken exploitative networks and ultimately protect those in prostitution. Early data from Sweden showed fewer visible street workers, which proponents have interpreted as evidence of its effectiveness.

But critics, including the German Association of Women Lawyers, counter that “reduced visibility” is not the same as reduced sex work and often reflects Verdrängung (displacement) rather than decline. Instead of reducing exploitation, the model tends to push sex work out of regulated or visible settings and into more precarious, hidden environments, they argue.

When clients fear legal consequences, Anne told me, they seek more secrecy: rushed meetings in isolated locations with no security presence around. All of this strips sex workers of the limited safety tools they currently rely on, such as working in pairs, sharing information, or operating in licensed venues.

Once the industry moves underground, it becomes harder for outreach workers, social services and even the police to reach people who may genuinely need protection. “When sex workers can no longer meet to work…or work in official, regulated spaces, the situation becomes extremely dangerous,” Anne said.

Stigma, Secrecy and the Cost of ‘Protection’

I asked Anne what — under the current legislation — has been the biggest disadvantage of her chosen profession. It’s nothing about the job itself, she says — “I always felt at ease and enjoyed the work” — but the fact that for many years she couldn’t tell anyone about it.