The Price of Porn & Berlin’s Sex Culture
I am happy to report that there is a distinct lack of sexual censorship in Berlin. This comes as a welcome surprise to my usual puritain-inspired surroundings. What you see here is a typical view walking down almost any large commercial area of Berlin. Thats right, these houses of sordid and pickled fancy are not glommed together, outcast to one seedy underlit alley….no they are spread out, in all sorts of different neighbourhoods, from the cheap and mostly low income and foreigner occupied areas to the ritzy residential and highly touristy areas. This particular image is on Rosa-Luxemburg-Strasse, a central, main, subway-having street in Berlin’s most central and desirably neighbourhood, Mitte. This shop is flanked by fancy clothing boutiques, nice restaurants, an international movie theatre, and POSH stage theatre and constant foot traffic.
Upon closer inspection you see that they are less coy about their signage too.
Flashing neon saying “Sex Kino” which means, sex movie theatre, or really in this context private video booths, are not so unusual. Instead of million of signs and neon lights saying GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS, XXX Films etc, they can simply state what it is and have a very graphic image to make their point, and it is this graphic image here that I find so liberating. I know its a terrible photo, but you can really see
that her ass and cunt are exposed..not only is this a much more direct stance than is typical for stuffy American advertising, but she is also bare for the eye to see. Honestly, this is not atypical, in fact compared to other storefront advertisements, some in even POSHer and more trafficed areas, is tame…they can get REALLY graphic, and even include action, sex toy shops and clothing stores have extremely risque window displays, which can and frequently do feature strap on harnasses and other insertable toys. PS: this above pictured image is less than 2 blocks away from 2 Elementary schools and 2 kindergartens.
Then, of course there are the all night sex and cruising bars which most if nto all travel guides tell you how to find. No problem, these are all above board, totally legit…you can even legally purchase the services of a prostitute in safe, well lit and clean parts of town that you would absolutely otherwise enjoy being, namely Oranienstrasse, Mitte, near HackesherMarkt…..story coming soon 🙂
What was odd however, was the price of Porn. I took an hour or so to poke around a little sex shop, much like the above pictured, but in Kurfurstesdamm, one of the main and MOST Posh areas of Berlin’s west side (ie the side thats always been elegant, sleek, and costly and still is!). This shop, featuring a very explicit Sex Kino (ErdeerMund= Strawberry World, and also strikes some german musical and literary references to hedonism) near a very classy fetish latex/leather/toys clothing store down the block. ErdbeerMund had an extremely impressive selection of films, dedicating an entire floor on the upper level to its shelves, and an impressive wing of Fetish/BDSM films. Almost immediately I noticed a film from Princess Kali, Boston’s highly regarded prolific Domina, and a friend of mine. So happily discovering the import, I flipped it over to see if the info was in German or English and I noticed the PRICE: €75!!!!! 75 FUCKING Euros, can you even believe it!?!?!?! All of her DVDs were 75 euros. Scanning the shelves I saw a range in price from 40 euros to 75 euros….and it wasnt just imports that were 75, in fact I could see no rhyme or reason why things cost what they did, so I looked for my other friends: Julie Simone, some 40 some 50. Hardtied and InSex Bootlegs 40-60….not sure how they managed that one. The local company (Master Costello) that I am shooting with this week, ranged from 40-60 as well. No Irene Boss, which I thought was odd. Also, taking a random and then specialized cross section of the shelves I saw no variance FYI, 40 Euros= $52 and 75 euros= $97.
So Kali, you better start asking for higher royalties 😉
Klawdya Rothschild's Vortex 
Very interesting.
Hi,
Well I was in Berlin fall 08 and the beautiful and friendly Oranienstrasse street walkers were offering blow job + massage for only €80 (per 45 minutes). Better than any mag or DVD, I would say. ‘-)
Rob
hi… my experience walking into sex stores (in Brazil, mind you) in general is that everything is way overpriced…much cheaper to buy stuff over the net, maybe there is a hidden “decency tax” or something 😛
no 70 euros movies though!
but the sex industry (prostitution) here is not even close to open…