Pascha in Germany, Cologne files for bankruptcy

The COVID-19 disease continues to take lives and destroy businesses as we are getting nearer to the end of the 2020 year. The latest business that fell victim to the measures introduced by the Corona Virus is one of the biggest brothels in Europe, Pascha in Cologne, Germany. For further details about what happened to the brothel and why the owners had to file for bankruptcy, continue reading the post.

History of the Pascha brothel in Cologne

The brothel was originally opened in 1972 and it was actually the first high-rise brothel in Europe. Back then, the establishment was called “Eros Center” and it was built in order to eliminate the red light district in Cologne. The now famous “Pascha” name was given to the brothel after 1995 when a new owner took over the operation of the business.

The building has 7 floors and 126 rooms for the prostitutes to operate from. The ladies had to pay a fee to use the rooms available in the brothel, but they received various benefits, such as meals, medical care, protection and of course the ability to operate from one of Europe’s biggest brothels.

The brothel was opened 24 hours a day, so business was booming for the women, as well as the operator of the brothel. In 2010, a documentary about the brothel named “Like a Pascha” was created, which gave even more publicity to the brothel.

Incidents in the Pascha brothel

There have been multiple incidents in the history of the Pascha brothel over the years that it was operational. The police had to visit the brothel multiple times because of harassment, illegal activities, protests, aggravated assault and many other things.

Additionally, in 2017, the founder of the Pascha brothel (Hermann Müller) was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment because of tax evasion in another one of his brothels. The brothel was also raided by the police on multiple occasions for different reasons.

Pascha closed in 2020 because of the Corona Virus

At the start of September, 2020, the Pascha brothel in Cologne had to file for bankruptcy because of the new laws that were introduced in Germany as a result of the Corona Virus. Prostitution has been banned in the North Rhine-Westphalia state in Germany for the time being, which made it impossible to operate the brother legally. As a result of not being able to operate, the owner wasn’t able to maintain keeping the brothel open, so they had to file for bankruptcy. Additionally, the German government wasn’t able to tell them when they can start doing business again.

Before the lockdown, there were around 120 prostitutes working in the Pascha brothel, all of which have lost their job when the new laws have been introduced. At this point, the women had to go back to their country of origin or simply look for other job opportunities in Germany.

Conclusion on Pascha being closed

At this time nobody knows when or if the Pascha brothel is going to be able to reopen again. According to the owner, he hopes that they are going to be able to open again starting from next year, if they get financial help from banks and other contributors. And of course if the prostitution laws amidst the Corona Virus in Vienna change.

To read the German publication that this article was based on, check out the original German text on the kurier.at website.

We will make sure to keep our readers up-to-date on everything that happens regarding this brothel. Until we can serve new information, you should definitely check out some of these related articles!

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