Currently, the designated street prostitution area in Bonn is on Immenburgstraße. There, sex workers are allowed to stand on the kerb as long as they have paid a "sex tax" at a ticket machine. They can meet their clients in so-called Verrichtungssboxen (which translates as "performance box”, and called a "sex box" in other parts of Europe), which are located off the street in a small, enclosed area.

In the course of the development of the Old Slaughterhouse into the Innovation Triangle, which includes offices and a cultural centre with a concert hall, the city wants to relocate the entire street prostitution area: a few hundred metres further to Dickobskreuz 11, next to the VfG residential home. The solicitation area will no longer be on the street as before, but in the compound. The health department and several welfare associations are to take care of the prostitutes, and the city wants to pay for a security service.

However, there are reservations about these plans. For example, the Technical Relief Organisation (Technisches Hilfswerk), whose Bonn chapter trains young people nearby, sees the safety of young people as being at risk. One reason why the city wants to relocate the site is that "direct encounters between young participants and sex workers are possible in the evening hours" around the cultural centre. But the town hall does not seem to acknowledge that the same thing could be happening to the young people at the THW in the future.

The Verein für Gefährdetenhilfe (VFG) was also critical of the new premises in the immediate vicinity, as Managing Director Nelly Grunwald explains: "We basically agree with the location. But we need a sheltered situation for our residents." A wall that would have stood directly next to the dormitory would not have been a good solution. Now, however, an agreement has been reached through a property deal. An approximately 570-square-metre strip of greenery will serve as a visual screen for the VfG. The district government of Cologne has already approved the change in the restricted area ordinance, which is valid with immediate effect, and the relocation of the site.

"No other legal reasons, such as a successful citizens' petition or a ruling obtained by the neighbourhood, stand in the way of the relocation of the site to the leasehold area," it says in a non-public submission. This "condition precedent" was extended in favour of the city. The condition is only to come into effect when it is certain that it will no longer be possible to successfully appeal against the change to the restricted area ordinance.

The City of Bonn enters into a leasehold contract for the site with Bauprojekt ehemaliger Güterbahnhof Bonn GmbH & Co. KG. Because the part that was sold to the VfG is now deducted, it is only about 3700 and no longer about 4400 square metres. With a term of 30 years at a ground rent of initially 1.08 euros per square metre and month net and from 2026 then 1.21 euros, the annual ground rent will initially be about 48,000 euros and later about 54,000 euros.

Original text: Nicolas Ottersbach

Translation: Jean Lennox