It’s fairly easy to learn about attitudes towards sex in Germany – Germans are not shy about expressing them.
Free of the puritanical roots that bind Americans to more conservative attitudes towards sex, Germans view sex—generally speaking—as a healthy and fun activity between two consenting individuals. Far from being a taboo topic, sex is brought up as casually as the weather.
Instead of learning the traditional conservative attitude towards sex, German schools focus much more on education about contraceptive practices and safe sex techniques. The results are clear: The United States boasts the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the developed world despite its attempts at staunch abstinence-based sex education and legal policies against paid sex.
Here in Germany, brothels are legal, and these places aren’t limited to red light districts, either. In Mainz, Das Crazy, a local brothel, is located just a hundred feet from the entrance to the central train and bus station. Just one block over, the local strip club stands as an established part of the city just a few doors down from city hall.
At Uni Mainz, European exchange students have a reputation of being promiscuous, especially with each other. Perhaps it’s because they have enough distance between them and their respective homes to mess around and then cut and run when it’s time to bail. Perhaps it’s just the excitement of being with someone who has a different accent. Either way, European exchange students like getting laid.
As for my own sex life here in Germany, I’m a product of my American upbringing. I don’t kiss and tell.
