Brothel to Open Near Berlin Soccer Stadium

Apparently not all the action is going to be on the field during the World Cup in Germany next summer. Artemis, a new four-story brothel down the road from Berlin's Olympic Stadium which will host the World Cup finals, is set to open its doors to 650 men and 100 women, said Norman Jacob, the lawyer representing its anonymous backers. But it wasn't the hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic fans that convinced the owners to open what will be Germany's largest brothel. "We didn't even think about that when we started the project," Jacob told reporters. "But obviously it's very nice for us that it is happening." Both male and female visitors will be required to pay a 70 euro ($84) entrance fee, and the women practicing the world's oldest profession won't be employed by Artemis, allowing them to negotiate directly with their customers. Prostitution has been legal in Germany since 2003, but has many in the country upset due to widespread trafficking in women. Jacob said women without a valid European Union working permit would be turned away at the door and said alcohol would not be served. Hydra, a prostitute support group, told the Spiegel newsmagazine it would not judge Artemis until it reviewed the actual working conditions inside.