Nazi Germany operated a vast, state-controlled system of military brothels across occupied Europe during World War II, a regime so strictly regulated that soldiers received coupons for visits and women faced monthly quotas of up to 600 clients, according to historical accounts of the program.
The system, which historians say was planned by Adolf Hitler’s command even before the war began, was designed to supply troops with sexual services much as it supplied them with food, uniforms and ammunition. Mobile and stationary “pleasure houses” were established under the control of the Wehrmacht for reasons that ranged from preventing sexual violence against women in occupied territories to enforcing the Nazi doctrine of racial purity.
According to accounts of the program, the brothels were created in part to stop soldiers and officers from assaulting women and girls in occupied regions. A second motive was the regime’s racial ideology, which demanded the exclusion of close ties between so-called Aryans and people of other nationalities. A third was the preservation of military secrets: 𝒔𝒆𝒙 inside a controlled brothel, the thinking went, prevented the leakage of confidential information to outsiders.
A final and more mundane reason was the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. All brothel workers underwent constant medical examinations, and facilities were required to stock disinfectants, soap, towels, hot water and even condoms supplied from Germany under the supervision of the main sanitary directorate.
Initially, workers in the brothels were recruited exclusively from German women. Attitudes toward prostitution in Germany at the time were relatively tolerant, and many women sincerely believed they were contributing to the victory of the Reich by taking such work, according to the accounts.
Over time, the requirements changed. Women from occupied countries, with the exception of Jewish women, began to be forced or recruited into the brothels. Some went voluntarily, while others were coerced, particularly in the mobile facilities attached to advancing units.
The operation of the military brothels was recorded with exceptional precision and pedantry. They were divided into four categories: brothels for privates, for non-commissioned officers, for sergeant majors and for officers, with a separate category for the Luftwaffe. They were also divided into stationary and mobile establishments.
Only purebred German women could serve in stationary brothels, which only officers had the right to visit.
In mobile brothels, women from the occupied regions of so-called near-Aryan origin could work. Each brothel fell under the full control of doctors and paramedics who were required to conduct periodic medical examinations of the workers.
The staffing norms were developed and scientifically justified. In a brothel for enlisted men, the staff consisted of one woman for every 100 soldiers, four non-commissioned officers and a sergeant major. One worker was assigned for every 75 personnel in other categories.
Officer brothels were staffed at a ratio of one woman for every 50 officers.
For pilots, the norm was different: one woman for every 20 pilots, or one for every 50 ground support personnel. The service standards were equally explicit. In soldiers’ brothels, one girl served at least 600 clients a month.
In the Luftwaffe, the monthly norm for a woman was 60 men.
Working hours at such establishments were practically uniform. Reception of clients typically began at 2 p. m.
and lasted until 8 p. m. Until then, female workers prepared the premises, underwent medical examinations and washed and ironed linen.
In practice, every German soldier had the opportunity to visit a field brothel five or six times a month. For this purpose, soldiers were issued special coupons. The system of incentives also provided for additional coupons for battlefield achievements.
A hero could receive up to three extra coupons for destroying an enemy machine gun crew.
Conversely, for violations of discipline and minor military crimes, a commander could deprive the perpetrator of the entire monthly allowance of coupons or part of it. In other words, the sexual provision of the troops was pursued in some ways even for disciplinary purposes.
For each brothel, depending on its branch of service and category, rules of conduct and even requirements for the appearance of workers were established. In aviation and officers’ establishments, a girl was obliged to meet cleanliness standards and wear makeup, and her underwear had to be changed after each visitor.
In soldiers’ establishments, the norms were naturally lowered, which is not surprising since their women had from 10 to 30 clients a day. Following all the rules was difficult. One eyewitness wrote: “There was a disgusting stench everywhere — sweat, perfume, secretions — all these mixed into a multi-component smell of greed.
This smell could not be hidden by any perfume. It was not uncommon for nose clips to be handed out there.”
The price of a visit was set as a rule and ranged from 2 to 10 Reichsmarks, depending on the category and type of establishment. A girl could earn from 50 to 200 marks a day, amounting to 1,500 Reichsmarks a month. For comparison, the average wage in Germany was around 100 marks a month.
It is therefore not surprising that many German girls and women were recruited for the work with the clear goal of significantly improving their material condition. To be fair, the workload was enormous.
In addition to rules of customer service and behavior, attendance rules were thoroughly regulated. For soldiers, the total visiting time was no more than one hour, which included the act itself, washing and examination by a doctor after visiting the girl.
As the front line advanced, brothels also moved behind the troops, but exclusively for soldiers, non-commissioned officers and sergeant majors. Women were delivered to officers according to a special system, often directly to the front line, since an officer did not have the right to leave his unit without command authorization.
Given that German troops advanced quite fast in the first stage of the war, the system of such establishments was promptly adjusted. To avoid leaving soldiers without female company, special so-called mobile homes were created, containing from 5 to 20 workers. They were ordinary wagons.
Even General Franz Halder did not fail to make appropriate notes in his diaries about the importance of such escort. On July 23, he wrote that the troops were moving fast and brothels did not keep up with the military units, and that heads of rare units were to supply the houses with trophy vehicles.
There was one great exception to all the established rules for the operation of these institutions, and it concerned the navy. Sailors who went on campaigns and were sometimes without any female company for several months simply were not going to waste time on formalities, so visiting women was simplified as much as possible. The command evidently turned a blind eye.
Lothar-GĂĽnther Buchheim, in his memoirs, described women in such houses being visited by marines who had just arrived at port. They lay even between the rooms; there were no more toilet stalls, lingerie, flirting or seduction. They simply lifted up their skirts so that up to five dozen men would penetrate them in a day.
Among the soldiers there was talk of a higher class of workers at higher-ranked houses. There were often cases when privates managed to get into, for example, a non-commissioned officers’ or even a sergeant major’s brothel. The punishment for such a misdemeanor was quite tough: at least 10 days in the guardhouse and complete deprivation of coupons for visiting women for a month.
The accounts shed light on a system that historians say was central to the Nazi war machine’s logistics, treating women’s bodies as another resource to be rationed, inspected and consumed in service of the Reich.