Hi,
I seriously doubt the truth of that story. I did several Google searches on the subject, and found no German site mentioning this specific case - only a lot of English ones. The possibility of this has been raised in the discussion about Hartz IV (the new job law this is all about) though, mainly in this article, if you understand German and are willing to read an article from an extremely left-wing newspaper which is known for, err, 'bending' the truth a bit to further their agenda. ALL other sources I found on the subject quote that one article, and Mechthild Garweg, the lawyer quoted in the Telegraph article, is mentioned there as well. It raises some interesting points though, for example that you wouldn't need any education to work as a prostitute, and that brothels, now that they are legalized and have to pay taxes, have a right to get offers from job centres.
But there's still the law about prostitution that says no woman (hmm...and man?) can be forced into prostitution, and Hartz IV itself says that you have to accept any job unless there's an important reason against it, and I'd say the law about prostitution is a good reason. ;) Working as a waitress in a brothel would probably be okay, though, but I'm no lawyer.
You have to understand that Hartz IV, the law in question, caused a great uproar here in Germany last year. Large demonstrations have been organized, and discussions became very heated very fast, so I would take any article about it with a grain of salt. As long as nobody can point me to a reliable source describing a case where a woman lost her unemployment benefits because she refused to work as a prostitute, I rate articles like this propagandistic BS.
-Kylearan
I seriously doubt the truth of that story. I did several Google searches on the subject, and found no German site mentioning this specific case - only a lot of English ones. The possibility of this has been raised in the discussion about Hartz IV (the new job law this is all about) though, mainly in this article, if you understand German and are willing to read an article from an extremely left-wing newspaper which is known for, err, 'bending' the truth a bit to further their agenda. ALL other sources I found on the subject quote that one article, and Mechthild Garweg, the lawyer quoted in the Telegraph article, is mentioned there as well. It raises some interesting points though, for example that you wouldn't need any education to work as a prostitute, and that brothels, now that they are legalized and have to pay taxes, have a right to get offers from job centres.
But there's still the law about prostitution that says no woman (hmm...and man?) can be forced into prostitution, and Hartz IV itself says that you have to accept any job unless there's an important reason against it, and I'd say the law about prostitution is a good reason. ;) Working as a waitress in a brothel would probably be okay, though, but I'm no lawyer.
You have to understand that Hartz IV, the law in question, caused a great uproar here in Germany last year. Large demonstrations have been organized, and discussions became very heated very fast, so I would take any article about it with a grain of salt. As long as nobody can point me to a reliable source describing a case where a woman lost her unemployment benefits because she refused to work as a prostitute, I rate articles like this propagandistic BS.
-Kylearan
There are two kinds of fools. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, "This is new, and therefore better." - John Brunner, The Shockwave Rider