Introduction

Abstract

In 1961, my mother was 11 years old and grew up in a small, conservative, and religious town whose name captures all the city’s characteristics: Seligenstadt (blessed city). Prostitution was and is a profession not visible in this town and so my mother heard the term prostitute for the first time when she was 11. She then went to see her grandfather, who was a passionate painter, to ask him about this job called prostitution. He explained to her what a prostitute does for living and that it was, especially in postwar Germany, not a rare choice of profession. My mother was shocked and said that she could never imagine to do those things for money. My strict catholic and conservative great-grandfather went down on his knees to look the girl into her eyes and said: "If your children are hungry, you do a lot of things. And feeding your children can never be a sin."