Domenica Niehoff
Nightscene in Hamburg St. Pauli – where Domenica was considered "Queen of the Reeperbahn"[1]
Born
Domenica Anita Niehoff

(1945-08-03)3 August 1945
Cologne, Germany
Died12 February 2009(2009-02-12) (aged 63)
Hamburg, Germany
NationalityGerman
Occupation(s)Prostitute and activist

Domenica Anita Niehoff (3 August 1945 – 12 February 2009), also known as Domenica, was a German prostitute and activist. She appeared in television shows in the 1990s, where she campaigned for the legalization and regulation of the profession.[2]

Biography

Niehoff was born in Cologne. Her mother, Anna, fled from her father and raised her children by fortune telling and minor crimes. After her mother was arrested, Niehoff and her brother Amando lived in a Catholic orphanage until she was 14 when she began work as a trainee clerk.[2] When she was 17, she met a brothel owner whom she later married. Her husband committed suicide in 1972.[3]

During that year Niehoff started working as a prostitute in the red light district of Hamburg, St. Pauli and in the Herbertstraße. Later she opened a studio and became known as a dominatrix. She appeared on German TV talk shows campaigning for prostitutes and legalisation of the profession from the 1970s onwards. By the 1990s, she had retired from prostitution but stayed in Hamburg's red light district to open a bar. A bar that she owned from 1998 was closed in 2000 when she had unpaid tax bills.[2] In 1991, she co-founded Ragazza e.V to help young prostitutes and in the same period began to help drug addicts.[2]

Niehoff died in February 2009 from lung disease and complications from diabetes in a Hamburg hospital.[4] Niehoff was buried in the Garden of Women at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery. She was the first prostitute buried in this area for distinguished women, according to the coordinator of the funeral service.[5]

In November 2016, it emerged that a street was to be named after Niehoff in the Altona district of Hamburg.[6]

See also

Literature

Media

References

  1. ^ Meyer-Odewald, Jens (13 February 2009). "St. Pauli: Der Kiez trauert um Domenica Anita Niehoff. Die "Königin der Reeperbahn" ist tot" (in German). Hamburger Abendblatt. Retrieved 23 February 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d Childs, David (7 March 2009). "Domenica Niehoff: Prostitute and social activist who campaigned for the legalisation of her profession". The Independent. London. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  3. ^ Hasse, Edgar (12 February 2009). "Domenica – die Befreierin der Prostituierten ist tot". Welt (in German). Retrieved 23 February 2009.
  4. ^ Lentz III, Harris M. (2010). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2009: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. Jefferson, NC & London: McFarland. p. 391.
  5. ^ "Domenica Niehoff wird in Ohlsdorf beigesetzt". Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). 11 March 2009. p. 9.
  6. ^ "Hamburg to name street after Germany's most famous dominatrix". The Guardian. Associated Press. 21 November 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2016.

External links

Prostitution in Germany
Authority control databases
Categories