Sex in Germany: A Guide to German Porn, Hookup Culture & Adult Services

Want to know more about sex in Germany?

A country that is well-known for producing some of Europe’s most diverse pornography and with a legalised sex industry, it is little wonder that Germans have a liberal attitude towards sex.

In this guide, we take a look at sex in Germany – from the laws and history of prostitution to porn viewing trends, hookup culture and gay-rights. Are Germans really as kinky as their reputation suggests? Well, without leaving you in suspense… the answer is YES. You don’t get to be called the ‘Brothel Capital’ of Europe — or have a porn industry boasting €51.9 Billion per year in revenue — without some serious action going on between the sheets.

Attitudes Towards Sex in Germany

When it comes to sex in Germany, the country has a reputation for being Europe’s brothel. Prostitution is legal and the country produces an immense amount of professional and amateur porn. The industry is the fourth largest in the world behind China and Japan, netting an estimated €15bn of revenue each year.

An estimated 400,000 prostitutes work in the country providing services in brothels, sex saunas, as escorts or on the street.

As a nation, the Germans have a pretty liberal attitude towards sex though this can be polarised depending on the region and the demographic. In some areas, traditional values are still upheld though the cities display more acceptance. Though prostitution is legal and largely tolerated, it is still regarded as a moral dereliction by many.

In a recent European wide survey, Germans were polled in a series of stats which revealed that:

• Half of the population had watched porn (51%)
• 30% of the population had had sex in a public place
• 15% of Germans had visited a strip club
• 32% of the German public had had a one-night stand
• 29% of the population used sex toys
• 11% of Germans had filmed or taken photos of themselves during sex

When compared to the results from other European nations, Germany ranked pretty average displaying less liberal traits than the Scandinavian countries but being far more adventurous than countries like Spain, France and the UK.

Sex education in Germany is compulsory and is widely believed to be effective. The teen birth rate in the country is low at just 11.7 per 1000 people, being half that of the UK and a third of that in Bulgaria.

Sexual health in the adult population is also good and only 4% of people polled in a recent survey admitted to having ever had an STD (compared to 16% in Denmark and Finland). HIV/AIDS prevalence rates are also low at an estimated 0.15% of the population.

How To Meet Women in Germany

Depending on the kind of woman you want to meet, there are plenty of places for guys to try their best pick-up lines in Germany.

From daygame opportunities in cafes, parks and malls to the evening hot spots of bars, clubs and hotels.

German women are receptive to hooking up, but there are few things you need to appreciate (which we touched on in our Berlin hookup guide).

German women are known for being intelligent, direct and straightforward. Your small talk will only go so far.

Outrageous flirting and heavy-handing compliments are unlikely to win you many new admirers in this part of Europe.

And if there’s one country of women you do NOT want to turn up late for a date with, it’s Germany.

Punctual is always best!

Our city guides cover the various hot spots for meeting up in the evening (the best bars and clubs around Germany), but we have to stress that this is a tough crowd for any aspiring ‘pick-up artist’.

Just because Germany has a weird and wild adult industry, doesn’t mean that your average German on the street is going to be anywhere near as liberal.

Best Germany Dating Sites

Looking for a quick way to meet women in Germany?

Below we have a few of the top online communities for dating in Germany.

If you’re on this site, we assume that your primarily interested in finding a hookup rather than a long-term relationship. So we’ll start with two of the biggest portals for casual encounters in Germany.

Adult Friend Finder

www.adultfriendfinder.com

Yes, trusty Adult Friend Finder.

It’s been around for what feels like forever, and it remains one of the top destinations for finding women (or men) who are interested in hooking up for no-strings-attached fun.

The database of members is huge, and AFF has a strong presence in Germany.

Seeking Arrangement

www.seekingarrangement.com

Money and success can buy you a lot in Germany. Including the companionship of some beautiful ladies.

Seeking Arrangement is a famous ‘success matchmaking’ platform. If you have a successful career – or a lot of cash – and the only thing you’re looking for is a beautiful German lady to lavish and spoil, then this site ticks a lot of boxes. It’s basically convenient sex for rich people.

Seeking promotes the benefits of ‘mutually beneficial arrangements’.

So a bit like friends with benefits, with added expense.

Finya

www.finya.de

An online dating website that is similar to OKCupid and Plenty of Feish, Finya is only available in either German, Swiss or Austrian language.

Entirely free to use, the site is populated by a lot of people who are looking for more serious dating but there are also hook-up opportunities available.

The site was founded in 2001 and has a good reputation and covers most major towns and cities in Germany.

Parship

www.parship.de

The second most successful dating website in Germany, Parship’s mission statement is to match singles looking for a long-term commitment. Whilst most of the profiles are certainly geared to make this goal come true, there is a good selection of people who make it clear they are prepared to date more casually.

The site is free to use but most of the features are only available to premium users with subscription costing €30-€60 per month.

The benefits of Parship are that the site is multi-national and your subscription will also cover you when you are looking for partners in other European countries.

LoveScout24

www.lovescout24.de

The largest online matchmaking service in Germany, LoveScout24 was founded in 2000 and claims to have more than 24 million members in Europe. The site’s main demographic is singles in their 20s and 30s with a reportedly healthy ratio of women to men (45:55).

Again, the site does have a principle aim of matching people with more serious dating goals but there are also plenty of casual dates being organised online here.

Subscription is the only real way you can benefit from the features of the site but you can use your free registration to review coverage in your area first.

Dating Café

www.datingcafe.de

Designed for German, Swiss and Austrian singles this German speaking site is also quite popular in some areas of the country (mainly the cities and border towns with Austria and Switzerland).

Unlike some of the other serious dating sites here you don’t have to complete such a lengthy personality test but as a result the service doesn’t recommend any matches for you either. Instead, you have to use their search facility to find members using your own criteria.

Love Awake

www.loveawake.com

This European wide personals site is geared more to the hook-up than a potential marriage partner.

The search facility is quite simple to use and offers a way to filter the results by age, location etc.

There are an estimated 2200+ German ladies registered with five times more men looking.

The site is 100% free to use but the profiles are very thin with many not having images. You can limit search results to those with photos or have been verified.

Best Germany Dating Apps

Looking beyond the traditional dating sites above, there are a bunch of apps that you can use to hookup or meet women in Germany.

Some of the most popular include international platforms such as:

• Tinder
• OkCupid
• Badoo
• Hinge
• Happn

It’s also worth noting that Finya has a standalone dating app which is hugely popular in Germany.

You’ll need to be able to speak German to get the most out of it.

Best Germany Cam Sites

Is there a large camming scene in Germany?

How easy is it to find German cam girls?

The answer is… yes, and quite easy.

Most of the major cam platforms have a decent contingent of German girls on their rosters, but the two that we can recommend for watching live German sex shows – besides the massively popular Visit-X – are:

Bonga Cams – [View Cam Shows on Bonga]

The #1 European cam site with an impressive selection of German cam girls.

Cam4 – [View Cam Shows on Cam4]

Another European-focused cam site that is dominated by German, French and Eastern European cam models. Cam4 has public sex shows that are free to watch, as well as private chats where you can direct the action to your heart’s content…

For more: See our extended list of the best German cam sites.

Best Germany Classifieds and Personals

Although a lot of Germans use the instant-demand swipe apps like Tinder, Hinge and Coffee Meets Bagel there is also a lot of interest in online dating sites. Some are more geared to casual encounters and hook-ups whilst others are focused on long-term relationships.

Most are either free or offer a free account with which you can assess how suitable it is for your purposes.

Our top choices for personals in Germany by the number of genuine accounts and positive reviews are:

Craigslist

https://geo.craigslist.org/iso/de

The ubiquitous website of choice for personal ads across the globe, Craigslist has good coverage in Germany. You can select from the major cities to find casual encounters as well as lonely hearts. Locations cover:

• Berlin
• Bremen
• Cologne
• Dresden
• Dusseldorf
• Essen/Ruhr
• Frankfurt
• Hamburg
• Hanover
• Heidelberg
• Kaiserslautern
• Leipzig
• Munich
• Nuremberg
• Stuttgart

As ever, Craigslist is a free to browse and free to advertise site making quality control a little sketchy at times. However, there is a good selection of adverts from women seeking men and casual encounters to strictly platonic and miscellaneous romance. The format of Craigslist makes it hard to filter but you can search with keywords or simply browse all ads by date posted.

Locanto

www.locanto.de

Like Craigslist, Locanto offers a free to use classified personals service. They have additional categories which include escort services as well as fetish contacts.

It’s a popular service in Germany and can throw up some good casual dating opportunities but be aware that some ads are posted by professionals and you may end up paying. Though this might be a budget way to get a prostitute, again it doesn’t come with any guarantees on quality.

Like Craigslist, the search facilities on Locanto are basic but you can use location and keywords to narrow your results.

Adult Industry in Germany

As a legitimate industry, adult entertainment in Germany is comprehensive and covers a wide range of activities. From prostitution in brothels to pornographic film production, sex saunas and strip clubs to escorts and sex shops there isn’t much you can’t find either in person on online.

Looking for a localised breakdown of the best adult entertainment in Germany?

Start with our city guides:

• Berlin Sex Guide
• Cologne Sex Guide
• Dortmund Sex Guide
• Frankfurt Sex Guide
• Hamburg Sex Guide
• Leipzig Sex Guide
• Munich Sex Guide
• Stuttgart Sex Guide

Prostitution Laws in Germany

Prostitution in Germany is fully legalised and is a licensed and regulated industry. The country is one of only eight European nations where this is the case (Latvia, Hungary, Turkey, Greece, Austria, Switzerland and The Netherlands).

Not only is prostitution fully legalised but most aspects relating to the trade are also covered by the same legislation including brothels, advertising and employment rights. Pimping, however, is illegal.

The history of prostitution is a mixed bag of attitudes and laws and has been shaped by the changing face of political and social factors. In the 19^th century, sex work was tolerated and even controlled, in some senses, by the necessity of prostitutes to submit to regular health inspection. By the 1870s, ‘commercial fornication’ was banned and brothels were outlawed.

However, prostitutes that operated with police supervision were permitted to conduct their trade. This did not stop brothels and red-light districts from operating.

At the same time, Imperial Germany was beginning to dictate moral and social expectations and a state definition was issued 1871 on how women should behave. This extended to prostitutes who were issued with regulations on the expectations of the attire and conduct both inside and outside of brothels.

The economic collapse at the end of World War I led to many more women taking to the streets to make a living and prostitution was decriminalised. Though seen as no less ‘amoral’, sex work was tolerated far more and red-light districts really began to flourish.

In the Nazi era, the Third Reich took a practical view of the industry and though they disproved of street workers (who were seen as degenerates and sometimes sent to labour camps) they saw prostitution as a necessary evil. As a result, brothels and red-light districts were organised and placed under tight controls.

During the Second World War, permits were issued to troops for accessing military command brothels in occupied territories.

At the end of the war, Germany was divided into East and West with the East banning all sex work. However, it was well known that high-class prostitutes operated in East-Berlin with some operating as spies for the Stasi.

In the west of the country, prostitution in the Federal Republic of Germany remained legal and controls remained in place for licensing and health screening. Brothels, eros centres (laufhaus), and sex saunas became a common site in major cities during the 60s and 70s but were limited by laws which banned them from promoting sex work. This legislation was repealed in 2001.

In modern Germany, though prostitution is a legitimate career (hookers even have to pay taxes) it is still stigmatised.

Brothels must hold special licenses but can employee sex workers directly or contract the services of independent hookers.

We’ve previously covered some of the best brothels in Berlin and Munich, and it’s really quite staggering the number of options that are available.

Annual health checks are mandatory and German law requires that prostitutes use a condom for all acts of sexual intercourse, including oral.

Germany is famous for its FKK sex clubs – a mix between luxurious saunas and mega brothels. Not to be confused with the wider FKK nudist culture, these clubs attract thousands of visitors looking to unwind and enjoy the services of the hundreds of working girls who operate inside.

Sex Shops in Germany

It is only natural that with a thriving porn industry that there is an equally high-profile retail industry to service demand. With this in mind, it is little wonder that Germany has the world’s most successful distributor of adult products.

Owning a chain of sex shops in more than 60 countries worldwide, Beate Uhse AG (Be You) was established in 1946 by eponymous owner, a female stunt pilot of the 1930s.

Though pornography was illegal in West Germany at the time, Beate Uhse AG established a name for itself as a mail order business for ‘family planning’. Before the ban on porn was lifted in 1976, the company became the first in the world to open a sex shop. The ‘Institute for Marital Hygiene’ was opened in 1962.

Sadly, the company has filed for insolvency in December 2017 amidst falling profits presumed to be related to intense pressure from online retailers.

The future of the company is unknown but it is expected to find a buyer.

You can find independent sex shops in most German towns and the cities often have dozens of outlets where you can pick up a range of bedroom accessories. In addition, you can also find some niche sex shops that offer specialist equipment, furniture and clothing.

Porn Industry in Germany

When it comes to the film industry, Germany has plenty of amateur networks and small studios as well as large production companies.

Check out our complete list: 22 of The Best German Porn Sites

The roots of Germany’s vintage ‘Heidi’ porn is still popular with traditionalists, but fans of mainstream hardcore and niche films are also well catered for.

One of the largest German adult film companies is John Thompson Productions. Founded in 1997, the film studio is responsible for the iconic series of titles, German Goo Girls. They also produce films for specialty interest areas, including BDSM, golden showers, rough sex and humiliation.

Owner, Raymond Louis Bacharach, directs and produces all of the titles produced by the studio and has produced over 1000 films. His work has won plenty of awards but also notoriety with some content being banned in many countries due to the extreme nature of the activities.

Studio content is released at a rate of approximately six titles per month and these hit a variety of network websites.

Though MindGeek is now based in Luxembourg, the porn giant was founded by German, Fabian Thylmann. The group owns and operates websites which includes My Dirty Hobby, XTube, Brazzers and Pornhub.  

Dubbed ‘the German Porn King’, Thylmann sold his stake in the company in 2013 but the huge network of studios and businesses still include many German interests. The company has offices in Hamburg and produces content for European, Asian and American markets.

German Porn Stars

Germany has produced more than its fair share of adult film stars over the years and, whilst many will only be known in domestic markets, some are immensely popular icons.

The top three most popular German porn stars in Germany at the moment are Gina Lisa Lohfink, Lexy Roxx and Lucy Cat. All three are producing regular content for various studios and are still working in the industry.

Our picks of the most famous and noteworthy adult stars from Germany include Sexy Cora. Famously being hospitalised after trying to break the world record for most men fellated in a single day, Cora won the Venus Award for Best Amateur Actress in 2010.

Perhaps considered American porn stars, Briana Banks, Amy Reid and Madison Ivy were all born in Germany.

Other stars of past and present include:

• Aileen Taylor
• Vivan Schmitt
• Katja Kassin
• Nina Elle
• Amber Michaels
• Annette Schwartz
• Tyra Misoux
• Leonie Saint
• Angela Baron
• Ana Nova
• Gina Wild

Germany Porn Viewing Trends

According to the global porn tube hosting site, Pornhub, traffic from Germany to their site made them the 7^th most frequent visitors in the world.

In keeping with many European countries, visitors from Germany were more likely to be searching for domestic porn with clips having the tag ‘German’ heading the top search list. Other popular search terms were:

• Teen
• Deutsch
• German mom
• Mom
• Anal
• Step mom
• Step sister
• German dirty talk
• Massage
• Sister
• Bondage

The majority of the results being returned were from the popular categories of anal, teen and big tits.

In a departure from the trends in other countries, the top porn stars being watched were all homegrown talent in the shape of Gina Lisa Lohfink, Lexy Roxx and Lucy Cat. It certainly makes a change from US stars like Mia Khalifa, Lisa Ann and Kim Kardashian dominating the shape of European porn traffic.

The top gaining searches which show those search terms which have received a significant increase in activity were:

• ‘VR’ – up by 622%
• ‘Skyrim’ – up by 239%
• ‘Real celebrity sex tape’ – up by 188%
• ‘Ballbusting’ – up by 141%
• ‘Oktoberfest’ – 128%

Germans enjoy watching porn and the top 50 most visited sites from the country include quite a few familiar adult titles:

• Live Jasmin – Live sex cam site – 16^th most viewed website in Germany
• Xhamster – Porn tube hosting site – 20^th most viewed website in Germany
• Pornhub – Porn tube hosting site – 30^th most viewed website in Germany
• Txxx – Porn tube hosting site – 37^th most viewed website in Germany
• XVideos – Porn tube hosting site – 43^rd most viewed website in Germany

Top German Porn

Germany produces a lot of domestic porn stars and there are a lot of studios churning out niche, as well as mainstream, films (see Adult Industry in Germany, above).

In addition, and in common with many other countries, amateur porn is also on the rise. A lot of the content produced is enjoyed on the European export market as well as in Asian and America.

Some of the most popular sites which are published in English-language and produced principally for export include:

• Deutsche Bukkake: Amateur facials and hardcore porn
• German Streets: Amateur pick-ups and public sex
• Herzog: Vintage ‘Heidi’ Porn
• Sperma Studio: German hardcore porn with professional stars
• Magma Film: Top-quality, professionally shot HD German porn (some other Europeans)

When it comes to domestic tastes, the Germans enjoy their own language films from sites like:

• BB Video: Amateur tube hosting site
• MMV Films: Long-running German porn site with good HD content

Of course, one of the top performing genres of German porn and probably the most famous is the German Goo Girls. Created by John Thompson Productions, the site is an icon of German porn and primarily attracts viewers in Germany as well as the USA, UK, Poland and The Netherlands.

See our complete German porn guide for more top picks.

LGBTQ in Germany

It would be hard not to mention the historical context of LGBTQ rights in Germany being hard fought. Like many nations, the journey to gain recognition and equality has not been without periods of oppression, discrimination and stigmatisation.

However, modern Germany enjoys progressive equality laws and is widely considered one of the most ‘gay-friendly’ countries in Europe.

An opinion poll in 2013 suggested that 87% of the population believed that homosexuality should be an accepted part of society; this made Germany the second-highest nation who supported this view at the time.

Same sex partnerships have been legal since 2001 but this was replaced in October 2017 by the right for same-sex couples to marry.

The law also permits same-sex adoption rights (step-child adoption in same-sex partnerships was already legal). The change in law for legalising gay marriage was supported by 83% of the population when they were polled in 2017.

Members of the LGBTQ community are permitted to serve in the military and the forces have considered it a part of their their duty to ‘be tolerant’ of diversity.

The current status of legal rights is not without controversy with the current government being a coalition between Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and both the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU).

The CSU and CDU are the senior coalition party who are generally supportive of anti-discrimination laws but opposed to full LGBT rights. During their three terms since 2005, the two parties have tried to block some proposals.

Germany’s major cities all have active LGBTQ scenes with many having gay FKK saunas, pubs and clubs as well as hosting annual Pride marches.

Overall, the country is accepting, liberal minded and legally progressive when it comes to LGBTQ rights.