Women in Germany who attended an event critical of the sex industry were assaulted by trans activists in a coordinated counter-demonstration that resulted in multiple people, including a six-months pregnant mother, being attacked.
On Sunday, December 11, a conference was held at the Conne Island Cultural Center in Leipzig titled “The New Pseudo-Left.” The event, featuring communist author Jörg Finkenberger, was intended to criticize the political left’s acceptance of the sex industry, and its treatment and suppression of feminists critical of gender ideology.
In particular, the left’s support for legalized prostitution in Germany was called into question. At the end of August, an event in Berlin organized by survivors of prostitution was cancelled due to pressure from trans activists. Sisters advocates for women in the sex trade seeking to exit and promotes legislation commonly referred to as the “Nordic Model,” which penalizes pimps and sex buyers in an effort to reduce demand for sex trafficking rather than criminalizing the women forced into the industry.
In response to the event’s anti-sex trade discussion, trans activist group Linksjugend Leipzig Ost rallied its supporters to protest outside the venue on the basis of “transphobia” and “sex worker hostility.”
According to eyewitness reports, members of the group blocked the entrance to the building while shouting expletives about “TERFs” – an acronym for “trans exclusionary radical feminist” often used as a derogatory term for women who are critical of gender ideology.
Women were also insulted as “SWERFs,” a slur used to demean those who criticize the sex industry. The acronym stands for “sex worker exclusionary radical feminist,” and is frequently used in conjunction with “TERF.”
The group, consisting of approximately 40 black-clad individuals, made an effort to bar visitors from entering, and some went on to physically assault attendees.
One of the women who attended, a sex trade survivor named Marie, told Reduxx about the attacks on event participants.
Marie described how the aggression rapidly escalated as people attempted to enter the Conne Island center, and explained that all attendees were searched for weapons before being permitted admission on account of threats that had been made to the administrators of the venue.
According to Marie, one woman in particular had been a target for the activists – famed biologist and feminist Marie-Luise Vollbrecht.
Vollbrecht has become a lightning rod for trans activist aggression after a lecture that she was scheduled to present on the evolution of biological sex was cancelled earlier this year.
Her talk, titled “Gender is not the same as sex: Sex, gender and why there are only two sexes in biology,” was intended to demonstrate her research in her main area of academic interest, which includes neurobiology and animal physiology.
Marie explains Vollbrecht had been situated at the center of their group in order to protect her from serious injury due to calls for violence against her that had been circulating on social media.
“We knew they hate her the most and wanted see her hurt,” Marie says. “It started when we tried to enter. Marie-Louise [Vollbrecht] was hit in the ribs with an elbow. They were trying to shove us around.”
Outside of the venue, members of Linksjugend Leipzig Ost read a statement they had prepared which singled out Vollbrecht by name as a “TERF” and slammed Sisters as an association made up of “radical feminists who are anti-trans and anti-sex workers.”
Marie describes how a friend of hers who left the event early was assaulted on her way out of the building. The trans activist group congregated outside the entrance, and as she stepped outside, she was struck in the face by one of the men in the counter-demonstration.
“After that, my male friends went out to see what was going on. One of the protesters ripped the hat off of his head and threw it. That’s when things escalated.”
Marie says that one of her male friends was pepper-sprayed in the face by a trans activist dressed in all black who screamed at him for being a “cis” man.
Even a six-months pregnant woman was not spared the aggression, and was attacked as she attempted to leave the area.
As she was being shoved, the woman tried telling the trans activists that she was pregnant in an effort to have them stop aggressively manhandling her. But informing them did not stop the attack, and one of the protesters deliberately blew cigarette smoke into her face and stalked her in an intimidating manner as she fled towards her car.
Marie says that the woman’s boyfriend intervened, sparing her from serious injury.
“She was specifically attacked because she was a pregnant woman. It was not like they did not know she was pregnant,” Marie says.
Police were present outside the venue, but Marie says some women were reluctant to file reports due to their reputation, and others were hesitant due to their political stances. One woman who was hit in the face wanted to go to the police, but had a hard time finding people willing to substantiate her statement due to concerns for their own safety.
“Police don’t have the best reputation… And we’re all leftists. Some don’t want to go to the police and collaborate,” Marie says. “But now the venue has set up an e-mail address where they are soliciting messages from anyone who was harmed.”
In the days following the attacks, Linksjugend Leipzig Ost posted a thread on Twitter sarcastically mocking the women attendees, Vollbrecht in particular, with videos depicting soldiers lying dead and bloodied on a battlefield.
Marie added that those assaulted have been “framed as the aggressors” on social media by members of the trans activist association. Marie and other women attending the lecture brought male friends with them, she says, because they expected to be attacked – something that trans activists labeled an incitement to violence.
“These people are very dangerous, and they are doxxing us in their groups,” Marie added. “They know where we live, they know our names, and I know that some of them are johns. Some of them are porn consumers, and are very misogynistic and have a hatred of women.”
Marie explains that the hostility from trans activists has been increasing, and causing a climate of fear among women in Germany who oppose the sex industry and gender ideology.
“We do not feel safe going to any leftist events,” Marie says. She also noted how trans activists have been attending events organized by groups established to support women who have left the sex industry, or oppose the legal model of prostitution, in order to intimidate them.
The trans activist groups have been “massively threatening” the women with violence, Marie said, resulting in women being prevented from publicly protesting Germany’s notoriously extreme sex industry.
Germany is often referred to colloquially as the “brothel of Europe” for its massive legal prostitution market in which many eyebrow-raising practices have managed to become normalized.
In recent years, there have been documented cases of convicted rapists being granted permission to visit brothels with the explicit intention of “accumulating experience with women” as a form of therapy. Desperate migrant women have also been a target for solicitation into the “industry,” with some trans activist-run “sex worker” collectives having come under fire recently for attempting to appeal to Ukrainian women fleeing the conflict.
In March, Reduxx reported on how a trans activist “sex work” organization had been utilizing social media to solicit Ukrainian refugee women for information on entering the legal German sex trade.
Berlin-based Trans*Sexworks, which describes itself as “a peer-to-peer support structure and network for and made up of trans and non-binary sexworkers,” posted advertisements for counselling services targeting Ukrainian women who ‘need support/info on how to begin sex work in Germany.’
That same month, Berlin’s police force issued a statement warning the public about the presence of human traffickers attempting to lure refugees from Ukraine at the city’s central railway station.
Huschke Mau, an author and advocate for the Nordic model legislation, told Deutsche Welle: “Every day, 1.2 million men go to a prostitute here. Germany is the number one destination country for EU-wide human trafficking,” she said, adding that traffickers and pimps “know that the refugees can bring them a lot of money.”
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