The small Schaffhausen commune of Thayngen, located near Switzerland’s border with Germany, must decide whether to grant a permit to a company planning to open a brothel in the centre of town.
According to Swiss media reports, a company called ‘Secret Atelier’, which already runs 13 facilities of the same ilk in other Swiss communities, wants to expand its operations to Thayngen as well.
Its action is totally legal, as prostitution is not a violation of Switzerland’s penal code.
The company has submitted an application for the conversion of an existing building for that purpose.
They emphasised that rather than being a “traditional brothel,” the new facility would be “a rental service for rooms to independent sex workers.”
Concretely, ‘regular’ rooms would rent for 800 francs per week, while ‘sadomasochistic’ ones for 950 francs.
READ MORE: Five things that reveal Switzerland’s unique attitude to prostitution
‘Under the watchful eye of God’
The site the company has chosen is in the very heart of the village, next to the Reformed church and near a daycare centre.
This location has prompted a local newspaper to blast the plan for what it described as “a brothel under the watchful eye of God and playing children.”
As for Thayngen’s residents, 842 of them (out of the total population of 6,000) presented a petition to the communal authorities, asking them to block the project because it would be located smack in the middle of the residential area.
As for the parish, its representative has pointed out that Thayngen already has a brothel on its territory, which is more suitably located “between a fuel station and the German border.”
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‘Valuable service’
The case of Thayngen is far from unique in Switzerland, where prostitution is legal, with sex work considered a legitimate service-industry job like any other, and there is absolutely no shame or stigma attached to it.
For instance, several years ago, a dispute erupted in a small town of Arbon in canton Thurgau.
It concerned the local brothel, located in the town’s historic centre.
Several residents who lived in the brothel’s vicinity wrote a letter to the city officials, complaining about the sights and sounds emanating from the facility, and asking authorities to shut it down.
“Almost every day, the women stand naked by the windows,” the neighbours wrote, adding that “the ladies wait for their customers and start loud music as soon as they arrive”.
But instead of rushing to close the facility, municipal officials responded that the brothel will be allowed to operate because of the valuable service it provides. “This establishment has a right to exist, as it fulfils the social need of the population,” authorities wrote in a letter to the complainants.
They added that the disturbances have a “neighbourly character” and are accidental rather than intentional.
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A pragmatic approach
This tolerant attitude is pervasive in Switzerland: Swiss prefer to bring prostitution out into the open, so it can be regulated and controlled to prevent exploitation, human trafficking, sexually transmitted diseases, links with criminal networks, and other problems that are rife in nations where sex commerce is forbidden.
In fact, like all the other independent contractors in Switzerland, sex workers must pay taxes on their income, and contribute to their Social Security funds.
The only rule they have to follow, unlike their counterparts in other sectors, is that they must register with public health authorities and undergo regular health checks.
