Centerfield

I don't think many people forsaw this result.
I'd give them a few months to think twice and reform the policy before criticising the society too harshly.

Read the article. They foresaw it. They couldn't come up with any legal reason to stop it. So they didn't try.

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.

Some job centers are trying to dodge around it. And the brothels are getting ready to sue them.

Ulrich Kueperkoch wanted to open a brothel in Goerlitz, in former East Germany, but his local job centre withdrew his advertisement for 12 prostitutes, saying it would be impossible to find them.

Mr Kueperkoch said that he was confident of demand for a brothel in the area and planned to take a claim for compensation to the highest court. Prostitution was legalised in Germany in 2002 because the government believed that this would help to combat trafficking in women and cut links to organised crime.

So now instead of combatting trafficking in women, the German government is assisting it, and financially coercing the reluctant.

Institutionally forcing women into prostitution is just one more step in in the EU Limbo: how low can you go?

Is this real? It seems beyond belief?

I'd love to see it debunked, Chris. I'm hoping it's exaggerated or outright false. But I fear it is not. And if it's true, I hope the Germans come to their senses right quick.

In this case "the government" means a particular federal agency right? The result in question is due to a "regulation", which means it wasn't explicitly detailed by law, but instead extrapolated by some bureaucrats in a federal agency. It's possible that the legislature might not like this result at all, and pass a new law which overrides the regulation.

Until the legislature has a few months to react, I don't think it's fair to condemn the entire government for the result, let alone the whole society.

All too true, Susan. Details that I'd really like to see are sadly lacking. Which particular bureaucrats dodged the hard questions (and decisions) on this one? What do the German people think about this?

And how long will it take them to do something about it--if they do? Who (if anyone) in government is trying to get it changed? Or will it become standard policy?

I expect this gets fixed, and sooner rather than later. Some sort of out for moral consciencious objection which will become a loophole fit for big trucks.

Susan's right that we shouldn't leap to condemn the entire German system based on this.

But it sure is a disgrace that it even got this far, aint it?

Let's hear it for legalized prostitution.

We already have Congress! Who needs more?

Snopes is indicating this may be an urban legend.

The only part of it not sourced is the subject of the article, who is unnamed. Which means it could be a "reaction" piece as SNOPES implies. But the rest of the sourcing is there, idnicating (a) that is indeed the legal situation, and (b) some brothel owners mean to sue to enforce it.

I'd be happy if they lost.