Looks like women could be forced into Prostitution in Germany.

[Cav88]

Strange loopholes in laws. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/30/wgerm30.xml)

Basically, prostitution is now a legitimite profession. You can have your benifits cut if you don't take a job as a prostitute. Weird.

[drew70]

That's most bizarre. It's one thing to legalize prostitution. It's quite another to turn down unemployment benefits to someone refusing to accept such a "position." It's probably as you said, a loophole that wasn't considered until it actually happened.

[Haltickling]

Theoretically, that is correct. However, there's still a law against "furthering prostitution" in the German penal codex. A cabdriver recommending a brothel risks losing his license and paying a severe fine.

That special unemployment law is very new, effective only since this year, and it's still in a test phase. Of course, the legislative couldn't foresee every fringe case, but that woman has a good chance to win a pioneer case. Layers will probably fight to represent her in court for free. Cases like that make law history.

Prostitution being legal just means that nobody can be punished for being a prostitute or a customer, not that anybody can be forced into prostitution. Besides, prostitution is legal since decades here, only the "moral clause" was revised a few years ago, in order to curb illegal prostitutes (not registered/controlled), and probably to gain more tax revenue...