1985 West Berlin Brothel Scandal Involving CDU Politician Echoes in Ferat Koçak Affair

A chat with Firas Remmo has placed Left Party parliamentarian Ferat Koçak under pressure, prompting comparisons to a 1985 West Berlin scandal. In that earlier case, Otto Schwanz, a longtime CDU Wilmersdorf member who operated brothels in West Berlin in the early 1980s, sought a more respectable venture when one of his businesses declined. He found an opportunity at the Europa-Center on Breitscheidplatz: the Café Europa. A payment of 50,000 marks changed hands, received by Wolfgang Antes, then CDU district chairman and building councilor of Charlottenburg. Officially, it was not Schwanz but a straw man who applied for the lease, and the straw man was awarded it. When the scheme was exposed, both men were convicted. The current case involving Ferat Koçak centers on Instagram direct messages rather than financial transactions. Four decades later, Issa Remmo appeared at the Neukölln Left party's election night event on the evening of the Abgeordnetenhaus election. The article draws parallels between the historical entanglement of underworld, business, and politics in West Berlin and the present situation, questioning whether similar dynamics are at play.