Big revenue for City of Cologne/Germany introduced from new 'Sex Tax'

[GeorgeTH]

Cologne, a city of around 1 million people (which makes it one of the 10 largest cities in Germany) introduced a special "sex tax" in 1993 applying to all sex clubs, gay saunas, swinger clubs, etc.
Despite initial protest from the club owners the tax provided a windfall of €700,000 (~US$ 925,000) for the fiscal year of 1994!

There's money to be made from sex - even city councils are realising it!

[news snippet found on gmx.net]

[Useless]

Is prostitution legal in Köln? In all of Germany? Or is the tax just for free sex in special clubs?

I'm a big fan of prostitution.

[GeorgeTH]

Originally posted by Useless Warrior
Is prostitution legal in Köln? In all of Germany? [...] I'm a big fan of prostitution.

Of course prostitution is legal in Germany - though restricted to certain areas (e.g. not in residential suburbs)!
Cologne is actually probably more restrictive than other cities (after all: it has a catholic bishop well known for being conservative even in the context of the Vatican!); there aren't many obvious street hookers in Cologne, but there's a city owned brothel in an ugly brick box outside the city limits (near the fruit and vegie wholesale markets); the building and area is probably as stimulating as a WWII bunker.
This tax was only applied to privately owned clubs and bars.

[you're so lucky that I used to have a business in Cologne, and still have many friends there - otherwise I couldn't answer in such detail...]

[Useless]

Damn Europeans have all the good stuff.

I grew up with my father's stories of his time in Germany. (He was stationed there when the wall was going up.) So I joined the joyous U.S. Army just so I could go to Germany. I was even guaranteed to be stationed there in my contract. Ha!
However...just as I was about to get my orders, the wall started to come down. Due to the nature of my training I was not allowed to be stationed there during that period. So the fucking army put my ass in Texas for the rest of my enlistment. I'm still very angry with them.

If the wife and I ever take a real vacation we're heading to Germany first.