Köln

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia is taking action: The “Pascha” now belongs to North Rhine-Westphalia. This is why the large brothel is in the focus of the authorities.

The well-known Cologne brothel “Pascha” was provisionally confiscated by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia on August 8th. The Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office confirmed this when asked by t-online. The background to the measure, which is said to have been carried out by the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office, is investigations into a gang of people smugglers. The “Bild” newspaper was the first to report this.

According to the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” and the “Bild” newspaper, the group was broken up in mid-May during raids in eight federal states. The gang is said to have smuggled wealthy Chinese citizens into Germany in particular – for up to 350,000 euros each. According to investigators, the group laundered its income from the smuggling business through the “Pascha”.

According to media reports, the main suspects are two lawyers from the Cologne area, aged 42 and 46. According to ZDF, a total of ten people were arrested during the raids – and around 1.2 million euros in cash was confiscated. The alleged confiscation apparently has no impact on operations in the brothel on Hornstrasse, which, with its 150 tenants, is considered the largest in Europe.

A spokesman for the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office told Bild that the confiscation was a temporary measure – the state could only permanently confiscate the house after a court order. However, charges against the smuggling gang have yet to be brought.

However, the state’s action still has consequences: the current owners of the “Pascha” are now not allowed to sell the brothel or change anything on the property or the striking pink building that immediately catches the eye in Ehrenfeld. The “Pascha” has been in Cologne since 1972, and business was booming for years.

But with the first Corona measures in spring 2020, the business got into trouble, and in the autumn of the same year the large brothel had to close – bankruptcy was declared. But that was not the end of the legendary brothel: a group of Chinese businessmen took over the house for eleven million euros. The once sky-blue ten-story building was painted pink during the pandemic and reopened in 2022.

The fact that the “Pascha” has links to human trafficking, according to the prosecutors, also has a political component: the two lawyers from the Cologne area, who are said to be part of the group of “Pascha” owners, have donated almost 13,000 euros and almost 30,000 euros respectively to the CDU district association Rhein/Erft and the CDU Rhein/Berg.

The lawyers also donated 5,000 euros each to the CDU and the Junge Union. The two district associations made the donations public themselves and announced that they would cooperate with the investigators. According to Bild, the smuggling gang’s influence also extends to the Düren district: a staff leader employed in the administration there is said to have admitted to having received six-figure bribes from the group.