A while ago, I went to visit the exhibition “Pages from the Glossies” by the bad boy of photography Helmut Newton at his namesake foundation. The native Berliner established himself in the museum, for which he was granted unlimited use of the former military casino in Berlin-Charlottenburg (Landwehrkasino) by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz).
The exhibition presents the visitor pictures which appeared over more than four decades in Vogue, Elle, Stern, etc. Newton was regularly commissioned by publishers and editors from renowned magazines from all over the globe to shoot contemporary fashion. This continuity was an exception in the fashion world and the current exposition offers a good overview.
The entrance of the museum is in the Jebensstrasse, at the back of the Zoo station. This street was immortalized in the movie “We children of Bahnhof Zoo” with Christiane F. It was there that the rich punters were looking for young male junkies. Those were the times when Berlin wasn’t tamed yet by capitalism. Nowadays you can find a syringe dispenser in aforementioned street.
I don’t know whether it is true but a friend who lives in the area told me that the luxury hotel “Waldorf-Astoria” demanded for the bums to be expelled before committing. The sex video cabins adjacent to the station also made place for a new building. I remember not so long ago when the station was populated with low-lifes. I even spent some time with one, whom I met while he was begging. Admitting the money was for beer, my drinking partner and I invited him to a dive bar nearby. To this day I remember we were talking about Serge Gainsbourg and which song was on when we entered the bar?
Back to Helmut. Although I don’t really consider photography a fine art, I visit occasionally exhibitions in order to get some inspiration for the pictures of the escorts. Helmut has without doubt a signature style. His women were strong, dangerous and in charge of their sexuality.
The women obviously can’t afford to invest in such sophisticated pictures. Also, some girls quit when they meet someone or the one (really darling? I don’t understand why your boyfriend doesn’t agree with this job.) There was one competing agency with superb sed-cards but they required 3.000 Euros from the escort and used Photoshop extensively. At Daphne’s, we hardly resort to it except to cover e.g. bags under the eyes or stretch marks.
It took us ages though, before we came across a photographer we liked. If the first two we met, were as good as they said they were with their work, we could have stopped our search immediately. The third one was too busy, the next one we liked but he was situated in the middle of nowhere…
Category: Berlin
Daria
In the previous blog entry I wrote about the emerging high life in the German capital. Berlin was always better known though for its low life. When I arrived, rents were cheap and living costs very affordable. Hence lots of people were able to live the good life without working too hard. One of them was Daria, who reminded me of the dancer Anita Berber but without her artistic qualities.
Anita was the bad girl of the twenties- tearing down boundaries with her androgyny and total nudity during her public appearances. Daria on the other hand, was working in a Berlin brothel when I met her. She was actually the first girl I had paid for sex in Berlin, where prostitution is kept out of the public eye except for the street-walkers around the Kurfürstenstrasse. Conservatives prefer it like that for the sake of appearances and to avoid scandal. I can’t really disagree with them.
Daria was blessed with an amazing body. After a while- I started calling her “the body” after the Australian Model “Elle Macpherson”. I thought prostitutes didn’t kiss but she made it clear she wouldn’t mind. She also confessed that her boyfriend didn’t know about her extracurricular activity since it was her little secret. She brushed it off with such detachment and lightness that made me blush. Maybe that’s why some people find women not immoral but amoral.
It wasn’t the first time that I heard that working girls choose not to tell their partner. In Amsterdam’s red-light district, every once in a while a guy is strolling along window-shopping with friends and all of a sudden his eye fall on say his fiancé.
Daria was enrolled at the University of Potsdam, where she read nutrition, but her diet consisted mainly of cocaine in abundance. Now that I remember- I had met already a girl studying at that institution who worked as a dominatrix and another one who was just enrolled there since she needed health insurance. My university wasn’t blessed with such characters like Potsdam, that’s for sure.
Daria wasn’t the most reliable worker the profession had seen. If it wasn’t the in-house parrot who bit her tit, it was her broken leg that kept her away from work. If she wasn’t late for work, she left early since she felt the end of her shift would be slow anyway. But what she lacked in work ethics, she more than compensated with her acrobatics, hyper-sexuality and beautiful pudenda. She once even complained that it was frustrating to get laid so often and hardly ever to come.
She also had the emotional maturity of an adolescent. When she told me, she would move town since she found love, I gave her a stuffed animal. I first hesitated if it was a good idea to give an adult woman a stuffed animal but she really was over the moon even though- she was already 33 years old. Her love story didn’t last forever and soon she was back on the game but not for long. Apparently, she got married to a guy she met in rehab. Daria- I wish you all the best. I will miss you!
S&M
Occasionally, clients enquire if we also offer S&M escort sessions. If the request pertains to hard-core stuff, with a chance of permanent harm and were sometimes a contract is signed between both parties, the answer is a straight no. It also doesn´t fit with our “Girlfriend Experience” philosophy. S&M is legal though in Germany. In 2004, the German Federal Court ruled that sado-masochistically motivated physical injuries are not per se indecent and punishable.
And why not, we live in a free country. Just as an aside, no one less than the Nobel Prize winner for economics Milton Friedman was against forbidding drugs and prostitution.
For softer play, we might consider the request but since we don´t want to disappoint the customer with a mediocre, amateur dominatrix and vulgar equipment, we don´t really encourage it.
Or maybe you like to walk around in Louboutin pumps and need some punishment or education. In Berlin, there is not only an agency which gives expert advice when you want to become a sex worker; there are also seminars if you prefer to become a professional dominatrix. The curriculum involves not only classical bondage, needling techniques and catheters but includes e.g. also some marketing tips.
Since the release of “Fifty shades of grey”, more and more people are interested in the subject. We got approached by someone who offered us a commission for every customer we passed on for personal coaching seminars in BDSM. He promised that he could bring clients in exclusive networks, get them in touch with people with the same inclinations etc… He mentioned as a matter of fact that he was in club which allegedly was started by no other than the Marquis de Sade in person.
I was not convinced. Maybe I made a mistake and should have insisted on attending one of his seminars and if Daphne´s clients wanted an introduction into the BDSM world, our escorts could have mentioned him.
I would like to point out that I am absolutely no expert in BDSM (a portmanteau acronym for bondage, dominance and submission, sadomasochism) but if you have a request pertaining to S&M, go ahead and ask and we will try to accommodate your request or give you a couple of addresses.
To conclude, something feminists probably won´t like to read. Most women like to be dominated in bed, even when they don´t admit it or pretend not. In a well-known Berlin brothel, the girls were grouped in three categories: devote girls, switchers or ones with dominant inclinations. No prize for who guesses which category was best represented…
New Escort(s)
The high life
Last year, there appeared an article in the New York Times covering Berlin´s emerging high life. The author had as mission to spend $ 2,000 in 24 hours in Germany´s capital, known for its vibrant night-life and art scene but less for its culinary highlights. By now everyone has heard the old saw “ poor but sexy” in relation to Berlin. With that slogan the flamboyant ex-major Klaus Wowereit tried to lure creative types to the burgeoning start-up scene.
In the article, the journalist Charly Wilder correctly points out that a decade ago, it was difficult to splurge even if you tried. I remember that a couple of venues tried to go up-market but failed quickly since there was no money or interest for such kind of establishments. When I arrived in Berlin, I was living in a flat with coal-heating. Fine if my girl-friend happened to be there, otherwise I had to wait almost two hours before the flat was warm and cozy. Those days are now long gone.
For your info, the writer stayed in the Soho House , the group of private members’ clubs aimed primarily at those in the arts and media but in order to book a room you don’t have to be a member. In Berlin the rules might be a bit less strict than in London eg. if you know that my local hairdresser is a member. She also splurged on a spa treatment in the Hotel de Rome, part of the Rocco Forte group. Even after several taxis and clubbing, she inevitably fell short of spending her whole allotment.
So let’s give her some tips for next time. At Daphne´s, we are enamoured with “Das Stue Hotel” and its cosy bar, adjacent to the Zoo. It used to be the Danish Embassy. If money is no objection, why bother with taxis if for 400 Euros per day, you can cruise the city in a pearl black BMW 5. For a culinary experience, look no further than Borchardt near Gendarmenmarkt. It is probably Berlin´s most famous restaurant without being overly formal though.
With regards to the night life, a couple of clubs sprung up who cater for wannabes and therefore we prefer not to give recommendations. If you passed the age for the world-famous Berghain, why not skip clubbing altogether and instead settle for the Victoria Bar where the staff really merit the title of “mixologist”.
In the future, when the New York Times journalist writes another feature about Berlin, she could mention the Daphne´s escorts if she has trouble spending her money. In Berlin, contrary to the USA, except for the state of Nevada, prostitution is legal. If she were to look at Daphne´s rather as a recruitment agency or head-hunters, who knows we might get mentioned. If you are a model, people who get you assignments are not called pimps… That´s also not how we see us at Daphne´s!
Hotel Soho House: www.sohohouseberlin.com
Spa Hotel de Rome: www.roccofortehotels.com/hotels-and-resorts/hotel-de-rome
Hotel Das Stue: www.das-stue.com
Restaurant Borchardt: www.borchardt-restaurant.de
Cocktail bar: www.victoriabar.de
Limousine: www.mydriver.com
Berlin Woman
“A country without bordellos is like a house without bathrooms.”
Marlene Dietrich
An Italian once told me that the Berlin woman smokes, drinks and cheats like the Italian man. I tend to concur. Feminism and religion might have played a role but I believe that the Berlin woman is indeed a bit less feminine in her behaviour than women in the south of Europe. It suffices to think of Marlene Dietrich, queen of androgyny. You probably knew that she was born in Berlin but did you also know that she used to box? Or how about that other Berliner Leni Riefenstahl, the first female movie director to receive international acclaim.
They certainly are less defined by their partner than women from Southern Europe. The “Berlinerinnen” also tend to be very independent and don´t need a man since they are more than capable of taking care of themselves, not only financially. I also find them much less demanding than e.g. women in London where even a five expects to be wined and dined. All the money over there really corrupted them. On the other hand, I kind of understand them. If you spend an hour dolling yourself up and spending a decent amount of money on your appearance and afterwards get invited to a mediocre restaurant followed by a couple of drinks in the pub around the corner… In Berlin on the other hand, we have “arm aber sexy” or “poor but sexy”.
Lookswise, they either wear hardly any make-up or overdo it. On the whole, I find them very attractive but they would be even more beautiful if they would take care of them as well as the French women. Then again, why should they since they don´t get chatted up on every occasion like in Paris.
What struck me immediately though was the morphology of our nowadays Valkyries. Berlin women, according to me, being tall with small breasts, are blessed with the perfect body. This is of course my subjective view.
Last but not least, how do they score in the sack? The inhabitants of the German capital are sexual liberated to say the least. The way some of them have sex can be compared to playing sports. Bed sports but exercise nonetheless. If you don´t believe me, book one of the Daphne´s escorts and see for yourself.
European decadence
I personally don´t consider paid sex in the higher strata of the profession immoral. When I decided to start Daphne´s with my business partner, what bothered me more was whether it was a sign of a decadent society and if yes, if I should contribute to the further erosion of the nation´s morals. According to me, prostitution is not degenerate as long as we are not talking about Berlin during the Weimar period where underage girls and boys where bought for a pittance.
At that time, Berlin was indeed Babylon-on-the-Spree. What I found interesting is that Berliners were not only looking for sex then but that it had to be accompanied with something else. The most frequent themes were danger, power or death. Rest assured all the escorts are at least 21 years old and although they are open for a lot, they all respect their boundaries.
According to me there is no doubt that Europe is the grip of decadence with the possible exception of Germany. What about the conspicuous display of richness, raising inequality, the possibility and willingness to live off a bloated welfare state and last but not least an unhealthy obsession with sex? If that doesn´t convince you, maybe voyeuristic shows like Big Brother and Frauentausch, the adulation of cooks and stars might make you think again. Or the large scale immigration of non-western foreigners? Jeff Koons and designer clothes for dogs anyone? I might be wrong but maybe decadence is like a financial bubble. You only realize afterwards that you were in bubble territory.
A healthy libido for me is on the other hand, is a sign of vitality. Since time immemorial, powerful men have made use of concubines, mistresses and temporary lovers. Paid sex will always exist as long as people age. It´s a well-known fact that older men often prefer much younger women. Who doesn´t want to relive his youth? What it boils down to it the exchange of money against juvenescence and beauty and there will always be a market for that, not only on the demand side as some feminists would like you to believe.
Aren´t men allowed to have some fun if this keeps the marriage together and doesn´t enrich the divorce lawyers. Isn´t it beneficial for the off-spring if frequenting escorts from time to time keeps the family together? Hence my verdict that paying for companionship is actually healthy for society. I don´t want to bring up the old saw that otherwise there would be more sexual delicts but also that validates my conclusion.
