Sex workers in Berlin, the capital of Germany, are coming out of the shadows to share their stories using an audio application in the hopes that doing so will help fight stigma, gentrification’s ills and abuse.
The audio guide titled ‘We Have Always Been Everywhere’ narrates the story of Berlin’s famed red-light district in central Schoeneberg, starting from the 1880s.
The initiative, which was started by local sex workers with the help of the municipal government and the Schwules Museum of LGBTQ life, asserts that prostitution has a long-standing tradition in the city despite being a prohibited activity.
‘We’ve been here for generations and we belong here and we deserve to work here safely,’ Emma Pankhurst, one of the initiators, said.
Three years ago, Pankhurst had emigrated from the US to carry on her trade legally, without fearing any arrest.
She said that though liberal prostitution laws of Germany marked social progress compared to the situation of full criminalisation in the US, however, Berlin has not been able to prove itself as a sexual safe haven.
Schoeneberg is ‘one of the gay paradises of the world,’ said Pankhurst. ‘That in part is due to the sex worker community being here first and the gay community following suit,’ she added.
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