Café Pssst!

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Café Pssst! in Brandenburgische Strasse

The Café Pssst! (Spelling with exclamation mark; sometimes simplified in the media without) was a brothel in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf near Fehrbelliner Platz . It became nationwide in the headlines by the precedent gewertetes judgment of the Administrative Court of Berlin . With this judgment, the owner Felicitas Schirow (then: Felicitas Weigmann) achieved the official recognition of her restaurant as an initiation restaurant for sexual services. The announced on 1 December 2000 judgment is also considered a major milestone on the road to 2002 adopted Prostitution Act and generally for decriminalization of prostitution in Germany . At the end of November 2015, Café Pssst was evicted due to rent and tax debts.

History, trial and judgment

In 1997 the nurse , ex- prostitute and clerk Felicitas Weigmann opened the Café Pssst! in the Brandenburgische Strasse in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. The café facing the street was designed to complement the escort, accommodation and room service in the rear building. Possibly due to the open declaration as a restaurant for commercial sex , the district office of Wilmersdorf canceled the restaurant license in 1999. Position of the authority: The contact talks between prostitutes and suitors in the café and the associated room operations in the rear building encouraged the immorality . At an initial oral hearing, the authority - at the urging of the court - temporarily withdrew the termination of the license .

Felicitas Weigmann achieved a decisive victory with the judgment of the Berlin Administrative Court announced on December 1, 2000. As a basis for decision-making, the court used, among other things, requested statements from various social organizations - including Caritas , Pro Familia , the DGB , the Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter , the German Association of Cities and the Chamber of Commerce . Due to the almost unanimous rejection of illegalizing containment and control strategies, the court found the plaintiff right. The attitude of society to prostitution, so judge Percy MacLean in his judgment, has meanwhile changed fundamentally. It is therefore entirely compatible with good morals - provided that it occurs voluntarily and without any criminal side effects. The reasons for the judgment published in January 2001 did not focus on the issue of immorality, as has been the case up to now. Rather, she moved values ​​such as voluntariness, consensus and self-determination into focus. Prostitution, which is practiced by adults voluntarily and without any criminal side effects, is no longer to be regarded as immoral according to the socio-ethical values ​​that have now been recognized. Summary of the judgment: "Anyone who thinks they have to protect the human dignity of prostitutes against their will is in truth attacking their freedom of self-determination, which is protected by human dignity, and cementing their legal and social disadvantage ."

The ruling of the Berlin Administrative Court received widespread media attention. The written reasoning for the verdict sparked great demand. In retrospect, the judgment is seen as an important precursor decision of the Prostitution Act passed in 2002. The district office of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf initially sought a revision of the judgment in the next higher instance. On October 17, 2002, the legal dispute between the operator Weigmann and the district authorities was finally settled: The Café Pssst! received a concession for gastronomy and accommodation "with the special type of operation: brothel." Felicitas Weigmann withdrew from plans to open a new restaurant in Kurfürstenstrasse in the neighboring district of Schöneberg in early 2002 - before the planned opening other, as she admitted, due to the resistance of local residents.

Premises and operations

Socially secure working conditions, a collegial working atmosphere and a form of prostitution that is based on eye level, as women can also refuse contact requests, are still the unique selling points of Café Pssst! - even if its level of awareness is now significantly lower than at the time of the trial. The actual brothel operation still takes place in the adjoining rear building. The café in the front building is only used to initiate contacts. The rather small rooms are designed for normal catering and bar operations. The Berliner Zeitung named in a report “[…] mirrors, red wallpaper and dim light like in other bars. It goes ' cozy skirt '. A sculpture on the counter: a naked woman lying next to bowls with potato chips. Men are crowded at the bar, young and old, in turtlenecks or ties. ”The women interviewed by the article author were consistently positive about their working conditions. A number stated that by working at Café Pssst! to supplement their first job salary .

The book author Thomas Brussig also described the working conditions and atmosphere with a positive tenor: “In the 'Café Pssst!' is actually a lot different than in other establishments. There are house rules for men and one for women, the latter being much more extensive and restrictive. And: It seems that in the 'Café Pssst!' every woman has the right to lure a man to bed, provided she submits to certain rules. Felicitas Weigmann earns money by running the bar and renting out rooms. Women make money from sex. They have the right to come and go when they want and, according to the house rules, they can refuse a customer if they are antipathetic . ”Subpages on the café's website refer to the basic rules. There is also a downloadable song from Felicitas Weigmann from the time of the legal dispute with the district administration (title: Do you know how many little stars stand ).

Press coverage and public response

The committed responsibility of the operator for the legalization of her brothel operation was widely taken up by the media - not least because of the associated signal effect. As an advocate of decriminalized , secure employment relationships in the sex industry , Felicitas Weigmann completed numerous talk show appearances during and after the trial , including at NDR . In particular at the time of the verdict of the Berlin Administrative Court, numerous press articles appeared about the Pssst! The Berlin taz commented: Felicitas Weigmann “[...] runs what is currently the most famous 'brothel-like business' in the republic. And for your right, the 'shhh!' To be able to continue operating in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, she has to fight. The district office has not yet been able to withdraw her license. But she doesn't give a damn about a mere tolerance - and that in public. She wants the precedent - the lifting of immorality. "

Although some media, such as the Berlin newspaper, made Weigmann's tendency to make clear text messages jointly responsible for the escalation of the conflict, the essence of the judgment was rated positively by the bank , at least by the leading German media - as an essential step towards the legalization of prostitution. Weigmann's efforts also met with a positive response from local officials. “The Wilmersdorfer 'Pssst!' have almost a role model ', who said SPD -Verordnete Alfred Gleitze . A criminal environment that is otherwise typical for brothels does not exist. The whores in the 'Pssst!' work without a pimp . "

The extensive press coverage subsided more and more after the conflict was settled. Nevertheless, the café is also present on the official Berlin website www.berlin.de with an entry. The lifestyle website hilker-magazin.de characterizes ongoing operations as follows: Even if Felicitas Schirow's “[…] business seems less exclusive and luxurious than the Bel Ami or the Bar Rouge, it is also about the sophisticated and also informal getting to know each other. If it doesn't suit the woman, no deal will come about. Conversely, nobody is looked at wrongly who visits the bar without disappearing into the room with a woman [...] "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ “Café Pssst!” Is broke. In: Der Tagesspiegel , November 24, 2015
  2. ↑ a b Marcel Feige : The Lexicon of Prostitution. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf , Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-492-05037-9 (entry Café Pssst, pp. 150–151).
  3. ↑ New round in, Pssst' row with brothel owners muck on. In: Berliner Zeitung , February 22, 2002.
  4. ^ A b Thomas Brussig : Berlin Orgy . Piper , Munich 2007, ISBN 3-89602-520-1 (section: Das sittsame Puff, pp. 134-149).
  5. ↑ a b c “Café Pssst!”: No cathouse at the Hotel Berlin. In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 29, 2001.
  6. ↑ Michael Mielke: Prostitution is no longer against good morals. Berliner successfully sued against the closure of her brothel café. In: Welt Online , December 2, 2000.
  7. ↑ a b Sabine Deckwerth: A woman against morals. In: Berliner Zeitung , November 30, 2000.
  8. ↑ www.cafe-pssst.de ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - only accessible via the features of the website @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cafe-pssst.de
  9. ↑ Katharina Born: Bergmann's famous whore. In: Die Tageszeitung , February 19, 2000.
  10. ^ Lexicon: Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf from A to Z: Café Pssst. Entry to the café Pssst! at Berlin.de, accessed on September 4, 2012.
  11. ↑ Kuschelrunde: Berlin erotic bars. Lifestyle website hilker-berlin.de, January 2, 2012.

Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 18 ″  N , 13 ° 19 ′ 1.4 ″  E