new pit stop in Berlin... drive-in sex booths

August 12, 2019

Drive-in sex booths proposed for Berlin's historic Tempelhof airport

These drive-in booths in the German city of Cologne were introduced in 2001.

Berlin's former Tempelhof airport has witnessed some major events in its time -- a Nazi airfield during World War II, it was the site of the Berlin airlift during the Cold War, and most recently an emergency shelter for refugees fleeing Syria. In 2008, it was taken out of service and transformed into a gigantic park, and Berliners can now be seen rollerblading down its former runways on summer evenings. But the airfield may soon take on less wholesome role, if one local politician gets his way. The mayor of Berlin's central Mitte district has proposed installing "Verichtungsboxen" -- booths where prostitutes can meet clients -- in the airport site, a bid to improve the safety of the city's sex workers. These include drive-in booths, where customers can meet sex workers in their own vehicles. Stephan von Dassel, the mayor who represents the Green party, is attempting to combat prostitution on Kurfürstenstrasse, an upmarket street in Mitte with a history of sex workers.