Reeperbahn in Decline

Internet pornography, foreign prostitutes and a growing number of cheap dance clubs have been blamed for the closure of the oldest brothel in one of the world's most famous red-light districts.

Hotel Luxor, a family-run establishment set up in 1948 in the port-side district of St Pauli, will shut next month, its owner, Waltraud Mehrer, told the German press yesterday.

It's no longer possible to make much money from real sex here in St Pauli, said Mehrer, who has run the business for 21 years. The table-dance clubs are still in operation, but otherwise there's not much business to be done here any more. I blame it on the rise of internet porn, the popularity of call-girl services and the noisy discos and dance clubs, she said.

Customers were no longer willing to pay high prices for sex, and an influx of eastern European prostitutes had also caused prices to fall, she said.

n the 1970s demand was so high that Hotel Luxor stayed open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and employed 12 prostitutes. Now it has four prostitutes and is open four nights a week.

Last Tuesday at around 10pm the only punters on Herbertstrasse were two Asian men enjoying a fit of the giggles. They walked up and stared transfixed at the street's most spectacular exhibit – a full-blown Teutonic dominatrix in knee-high black leather boots, matching corset and a mane of hair that covered surreal breasts. The dominatrix did not bat an eyelid or even look up. She was too engrossed in the novel she was reading.

Controlled and legal prostitution – at least the kind that made Hamburg's Reeperbahn famous and profitable for decades – is dying in what still rates as one of the world's most famous red light districts. And if the scene witnessed on what is reputed to be the area's most titillating street brothel was anything to go by, even its practitioners have become bored with the idea of organised sex for sale.

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