Germany loves to call itself progressive when it comes to sex work. It’s the go-to headline: legal, regulated, normalized. A country that supposedly “got it right.” But if you look closer—past the policies, past the political self-congratulation—you’ll find a system that is less about liberation and more about control dressed up as protection. Yes, sex work has been legal here since 2002. The introduction of the Prostitution Act was meant to recognize sex work as labor, to pull it out of the shadows and into a space where rights, contracts, and social security could exist. On paper, that shift matters. It reframed sex workers as workers—not victims, not criminals—and that distinction is not small. But legality is not the same as autonomy. And it certainly isn’t the same as safety. In 2017, the German state tightened its grip with the Prostitute Protection Act, introducing mandatory registration, health consultations, and increased surveillance of both workers and workplaces. The language was predictable: safety, protection, order. But many sex workers—and organizations like the Berufsverband erotische und sexuelle Dienstleistungen—have …