Become an escort in Berlin: English-speaking evenings between concert halls and lakes

Berlin · 02 · Evenings and guests

What an evening in Berlin can look like

A Friday in February, a last crust of snow on Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate already lit up behind you. You have arrived a few minutes early, so you cross the square one more time. At midday your contact confirmed everything, the lobby of the Adlon, the evening until about midnight, and the fee. He is a producer from Toronto, three days into the Berlinale, and looking forward to a dinner with no industry talk. You walk along Unter den Linden to Borchardt, talk about the one film that surprised him, and then about quite different things.

After dinner it is only a few minutes back to the Adlon, where the two of you stay for a few hours. From the table you had sent your contact a quick note that all was well. Shortly after midnight a taxi takes you along Torstraße to Prenzlauer Berg, and from home you send one more word, "arrived". A dinner, a few hours at his hotel, a taxi through the empty city: in Berlin an evening usually ends more quietly than it began.

Berlin · 03

Where your evenings happen

Berlin has no single smart quarter where everything takes place. Your guests stay in houses like the Adlon or the Ritz-Carlton, and from there the evening spreads out across the city.

Mitte: Adlon and Regent

The Adlon stands by the Brandenburg Gate, the Regent on the Gendarmenmarkt. Between them lie the Staatsoper and restaurants where one menu fills an evening. Nobody expects you to read a wine list. At the table you simply ask.

Potsdamer Platz and Tiergarten: Ritz-Carlton, Das Stue, Philharmonie

Some guests come just for a concert by the Berliner Philharmoniker and stay a few steps away at the Ritz-Carlton. The first time, you simply look around the hall. Das Stue on the edge of the Tiergarten is quieter and suits a guest who wants no crowd around him after the concert.

Charlottenburg: Waldorf Astoria and Deutsche Oper

The Waldorf Astoria stands beside the Gedächtniskirche, and the Deutsche Oper is not far. An opera night here is more classic and a little more formal than in Mitte, and around the Kurfürstendamm waiters have known their guests by name for years. A man who spent such an evening with you often asks for you again on his next visit, and that is how regulars come about.

Kreuzberg and Prenzlauer Berg

Along the Landwehrkanal people sit on the bank with a glass in the evening, and a few doors on someone is cooking at a very high level. Trainers are fine here, and a floor-length gown would look like fancy dress. Prenzlauer Berg, with its old apartment houses and small wine bars, is quieter and lovely for a second meeting. Afterwards you usually head back to Mitte, to his hotel.

Grunewald, Wannsee and Potsdam

At weekends many guests head for the green, to the Wannsee for a meal by the water or to Potsdam for a whole day. Such invitations arrive well ahead, often with a night away included, and you know that before you answer. Flat shoes and a jacket get packed in peace.

The street scene on Kurfürstenstraße has nothing to do with your evenings. Every meeting point is settled before you agree, and if one does not suit you, you say no.

Berlin · 04 · Working with us

How you are looked after

In a city where thousands of strangers arrive every evening, you meet no stranger. Every guest goes through our KYC check, long before you hear his name. His advance payment is held on an intermediary account as a pass-through item until the date. No full prepayment, no date.

Next you hear from your own contact. Meeting place, length and fee are in her message before you decide, and the price talk with him is already done. You never have to explain whether you accept a date or not. On the evening itself you are not out there alone. You send a short check-in when you arrive and another when you move from Borchardt to the hotel. One code word that only the two of you know tells her quietly that you would rather go. Your way home is agreed before you leave the house, even after midnight in Mitte. Where your limits lie is yours alone to decide.

We ask no money of you beforehand, and a minimum number of dates does not exist. Your fee comes by bank transfer once the date is over, invoice included. How we work in detail is described in how we work.

Berlin · 05

What our models say

Berlin · 06 · Pay

What you earn in Berlin

An evening, from €1,000 in fees, and you decide which one. Dinner with a few hours at the hotel afterwards brings €3,000, for example, and a weekend in Potsdam or on the Baltic coast can reach €15,000. Ten days away with a guest lie between €30,000 and €40,000. The guest pays all of that. Our commission and your taxes come out of it, and we talk about the level of the commission after your application, then put it down in the contract.

How full a month gets follows Berlin's own calendar. February and the autumn bring more enquiries, July and August fewer. For many women it comes to two to four evenings a month, for some more, and nobody asks a set number of you. What that would mean for you is easy to work out with our guide on how much an escort earns. Which kinds of booking exist, from a concert evening to travel, is set out in escort jobs in Germany. These are examples, not a promise.

Berlin · 07 · Discretion

Discretion in Berlin

What if someone recognises you? Berlin, with its millions, feels anonymous, yet the circles many guests move in are small. Around the government quarter, people from ministries, embassies and newsrooms sit in the same restaurants at night, and in film and start-ups almost everyone knows everyone at two removes.

That is why you name, on the very first call, the industries, houses and neighbourhoods we should keep away from you. No enquiry from there ever lands with you. You work under a stage name, nobody ever sees your face in public, and your ID is checked once, internally. The guests want exactly the same, by the way.

Berlin · 08

What you bring with you

What do you have to be good at? Less than you fear. You need not read a wine list, know an opera or look perfect. What matters is being curious about people, and staying calm when an evening takes a different turn from the one planned. Add a feel for what suits the Adlon and what suits the canal bank in Kreuzberg. You do not need experience, but you do need to be 21. What else is worth bringing is in the requirements to become an escort.

English at the table

Do you need good German? No. Berlin draws guests from Toronto, Seoul and São Paulo, and for many of them German is a foreign language too, so a whole evening can run in English. Nobody at the next table wonders about your accent. German still opens doors, though. Guests who live here usually prefer it, and a few words over the menu make them smile. Nobody expects fluency before you start.

Berlin · 09 · Where to live

Living in Berlin, or a train ride away

Do you have to live in Berlin? No, and sometimes it is more comfortable not to live where your evenings happen. From Potsdam the S-Bahn gets you into the centre quickly, and from Leipzig the ICE runs straight to the Hauptbahnhof. Nobody at home asks why you take a garment bag to the train on a Friday. The fare is never yours to pay, because every guest covers a travel allowance there and back. If you live nearer Saxony or the Elbe, look at Hamburg too.

Guests who land at BER

Guests from abroad land at BER, and the bigger trips begin there too, a weekend in Copenhagen or ten days on the Côte d'Azur. The guest pays flights and hotel, every time.

Berlin · 10 · First steps

Just moved to Berlin: what comes first

You are in good company, because Berlin is full of people who arrived recently, and the list for a start is short. A furnished short-term flat is calmer than a hotel for this work, and guests never come there; it stays your own place. Your fee comes by bank transfer, which means an account in your own name; a SEPA account from another EU country works too. Health cover belongs on the list from day one, and once you move into a flat, the Bürgeramt handles your address registration, so book that appointment early.

If you come from outside the EU, talk to an advice centre such as Hydra about what your residence status means for this work before you plan anything. Hydra advises in English, Spanish, Bulgarian and Romanian as well as German. The first months in a new city can feel lonely when the evenings are busy and the days empty. So keep a language class, a sports course or a weekly breakfast with someone from outside this world.

Berlin · 11 · Season

Berlinale, ITB, IFA: when Berlin is full

For the Berlinale in February, the ITB in March and the IFA in September, more guests are in the city who would rather not eat alone at night. July and August go quiet. Even in full weeks, guests book ahead, often together with tickets and hotel. Whether you walk a red carpet with a guest or meet him afterwards, you agree beforehand. A no is perfectly normal there.

Berlin · 12 · Applying

Your first evening in four steps

1. Apply in one minute. You fill in the form, in German or English. Photos can come later, and pressing send commits you to nothing.
2. Within 24 hours you hear back. Someone from the team writes to you and proposes a time to talk on the phone.
3. The call, 20 to 40 minutes. Berlin's own questions come up here, for instance which neighbourhoods and houses you rule out and whether evenings in English appeal to you. Ask anything; decide nothing yet.
4. Photo shoot, at our expense. The pictures belong to you. Afterwards you decide whether we work together, and only then does a first enquiry come your way.

What belongs in your application and how we read it is covered in how to apply to an escort agency.

No experience is needed, only that you are 21. Should it not work out, we delete what you sent after 90 days. Whenever you feel ready, the application form for Berlin is here, confidential and free.

Berlin · 13 · Good to know

Which office handles registration and counselling in Berlin?

One office covers the whole of Berlin, ProGAB at Rathaus Schöneberg, part of the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district office. There you first attend the required health counselling session and then register, both by appointment only and, if you like, with telephone interpreting in many languages. On request the certificate is also issued as an alias certificate, which fits well with your stage name.

Berlin has no restricted zone so far, unlike most large German cities, although the idea comes up again from time to time, and if that changes we will talk it through with you in good time. On trips the rules of the other city apply.

General information, not legal advice. Binding answers come from the authority and a local advice centre.