There are certainly worse places to lounge around.
Mainhattan is one of the most well known and easy to find of all the sex saunas in Germany. FKK is a common acronym in German speaking countries for the phrase Freikörperkultur. This translates to “free body culture” and has roots going far back in history. In the context of the commercial sex industry it is used to describe sex shops loosely based on a nudist club model that helps limit the responsibility of owners.
Prostitution is totally legal in Germany and laws have been written to try to turn it into a regular profession but issues still remain that many would simply like to avoid. At the FKKs working women pay a set fee to enter the club for the day. Men pay another fee to enter. They can then make deals between themselves for sex. The owner makes money from everyone who comes to the club without actually employing any sex workers directly. Only the management, security, and service staff are the payroll. This has worked well for years and become a sort of universal model. Prices may vary from one place to the next but the women in each particular establishment tend to charge the same money for the same services. Mainhattan is no exception.
Unlike some other clubs located out of town Mainhattan is located in Frankfurt proper. While some may take light rail tram #11 to Daimlerstrabe Station and others may even walk I imagine most customers reach the place by taxi. It is so well known in the city that most cab drivers know exactly where it is located without researching the address. Passengers just say “Mainhattan sauna please.” The place is even advertised openly in the city which can be a bit of a surprise when coming from countries where sex work is forced into the shadows.
The club almost looks like some sort of workshop from outside. You might imagine some sort of plastic piping was being made inside if you didn’t see the large sign out front. Customers simply walk right in through the glass doors and to the front counter to enter. Taxi drivers often follow right behind to do some sort of business with the place though it in no way increases the prices for customers. Nude and semi nude women can often be seen hanging around the entrance which may surprise new guys even more than the open advertising found around town.
The front desk worker and most everyone else in this and every other FKK can speak at least passable English. If a customer is visiting for the first time the way things work will quickly be explained. Those who already know the routine can simply hand over the entrance fee and get on with it. There is an ATM machine in the front lobby but it charges the kind of ridiculous fees that would make any strip club owner feel right at home so preparation minded men bring their money in from somewhere else before coming.
It costs 45 Euro ($51 USD) to enter the club. There is an additional 5 Euro charge for use of a bathrobe even though this included free in every other FKK sauna I know of. Those who don’t pay extra for the bathrobe have to make due with a large towel.
Once the customer pays the entrance fee they are given a wrist band with a number and a key similar to those used at Macau saunas. They also receive another paper wrist band which shows that they paid to get in. They then go into the changing room immediately in front of the front desk and find the locker that matches their number. They use the key to open it and change out of their street clothes and into the provided bathrobe or towel. All valuables including money must also be locked away along with cell phones which are not allowed in the club.
After changing and slipping on the provided rubber flip flops customers are free to roam around. There are showers off to the right and customers are expected to use them when they first arrive and between any sex sessions. No one hangs around checking on people to make sure they actually shower but it is the basic protocol and a way for people to show respect for everyone else around them. The showers are open in typical locker room style but everyone minds their own business so it is not a big deal.
There is a hallway off to the back of the changing room that leads through a nice little courtyard to a dining area and a movie theater. The dining area contains snacks and drinks at all times. More complete meals are served at set times. There is no extra cost for any of this. The movie theater plays porn movies of various quality on repeat. There are large mattresses set up where people have semi-public fun but this area doesn’t get as much traffic as it does in some other similar clubs. The theater is usually empty or only has one or two people in it at any given time.
Leaving the locker room and turning right at the front desk leads into the main lounge. This large room looks like something out of a California porn set or a mansion from a decade or two ago. That’s not to say it’s worn. It just has that sex club kind of vibe to it. The room is clean and contains several couches and chairs where people can sit along with a huge bar where staff serve drinks to customers and women alike. There are televisions playing sports and mainstream shows along with a television near the bar that plays porn. At the back there is a glass walled smoking room which is great considering how polluted the many smoke filled FKKs around Europe can get. Walking through the lounge one finds a bathroom, a massage room, private rooms a sauna and a pool. Customers have free run of the place and are free to go anywhere except the private rooms or the massage rooms. A fee has to be paid to get a professional massage from one of the body builder type female masseuses that work the place and the private rooms are meant for rendezvous with the working women. Guys can and do hang around the lounge and it is not uncommon to see some having a nap either. Pumping away all day can be a lot of work! The sauna and the pool are obviously used in the nude since clothes aren’t allowed inside.
I haven’t said much about the women yet. They are probably the first thing a person would notice upon entering the club but since there are women in every FKK it make sense to explain the set up of this particular place in some detail. Reviews don’t have much value if they say nothing more than “here be women.” It is also a fact that the women working at Mainhattan or any other similar place can change from one day to the next. That is the nature of the business especially when women work for themselves rather than someone else. The best I can do is try to paint a general picture. The photo gallery on the Mainhattan website gives a good idea of what the women at the club look like but this may be a case where words can say more than a few generic pictures.
During the day there are usually a dozen or more women at the club. Sometimes there are two dozen or even more. The evenings and nights see the most women but typically the most customers too. While men in FKK clubs usually wear a bathrobe or very occasionally a towel the women tend to be naked or semi-clothed. This is by design and meant to remove the possibility of men being shocked in a private room by a woman dropping her dress and looking totally different than expected in the nude. The women at Mainhattan are more covered than the women in most other FKKs in Germany but in my opinion it doesn’t take away much since they tend to wear things like very sexy lingerie and stockings which accent more than hide their bodies. The women do appear fully nude when walking back from a private room after a session to collect their payment. They then clean up and put their kits back on.
The women who work at Mainhattan tend to come from Europe which makes sense since those in the EU have permission to work while others would have to go through all sorts of immigration procedures. Romanian and Moldovian women are the most common but lots of other countries are represented too. For whatever reason there are often many Spanish women working this club even though they aren’t so common in other FKKs around the country. Women have to show a card that says they were recently checked for disease to work on any given day though I’m not totally sure as to the specifics. Tests are great but they are no guarantee of anything especially for people with multiple sex partners.
Most of the women at Mainhattan are generally attractive. There are a few who aren’t that good looking but no one elderly or obese. There are also several very good looking women and often even some total knockouts. It is not uncommon for there to be one or two women who most men would consider near perfect on a weekday at two in the afternoon which speaks to the quality possible. Ages vary a bit but the most common range is twenty one to thirty five. Women who are over thirty usually don’t admit that but it can be quite obvious. Most of the women have nice or even great bodies. Faces have more variation and it is clear that some have lived hard by looking at the lines on their faces even when their frames are still in pretty good shape. There are some silicone enhanced bodies but most are natural. Few is any women show visible signs of child birth.
Customers can sit anywhere they like and women can too. Since the women are near nude they have to sit on a towel. They have their own towels but they sometimes ask to sit on a customers towel when they approach. Customers who hang around will see women walking around and often right up to them if they get any kind of eye contact or indication that the guy wants to see them. If the guy is new he can expect to be approached by almost all the women even if he looks like the Hunchback of Notre Dame and has his face buried in a newspaper. Well known guys are usually left alone.
Some of the women travel in groups and others walk alone. They can all speak English and most can speak it very well even though it is not their native language. The most aggressive women can promise all sorts of things but as is usually the case all around the world those types are usually better sellers than performers. Guys are totally free to approach only the women they like and politely reject those they are no interested in. Customers who say “sorry I’m not interested at the moment” or “maybe later” will be treated much better than those who are rude.
All women working at Mainhattan can do standard sessions. Oral sex is performed without a cover unless a customer requests one. Full sex is always done with a condom. The women provide the rubbers and they all charge the same fee of 50 Euros ($57 USD) for thirty minutes. The fee doesn’t include extras. Not every woman will do every extra with every guy. It is up to them. All a guy can do is ask. Things like cumming in mouth cost an extra 50 Euros. Some charge an extra 50 for taking a load on their face or body. Anal always costs an extra 100 Euros for those who will do it. If the menu sort of system may sound a little cold that’s because it is but things could be worse. Those who go with the flow may not even notice the various options and charges if they stick to straight ahead sessions or have fun with any negotiations. Tipping above the agreed rates is not expected.
The use of a private room is free with any session and that’s the most common place to go at it. The rooms are large and clean with big beds and fresh sheets. Towels are put down so as not to soil the bed. Some guys prefer to have all or part of their sessions on the mattresses in the previously discussed theater (called a “kino” in German). Many women are okay with that but a few are not. Some may prefer it since they can try to extend the session by another thirty minutes but none are really pushy and it is easy for any man with his wits about him to politely refuse if he is not interested. I have never seen any kind of other public action at Mainhattan which leads me to believe it is either not permitted or very uncommon.
Performance depends on any number of things and the phrase “your mileage may vary” applies well though most of the women are quite capable and do seem to want to get the guys who take them off. Clock watching isn’t very common and any attempts at cheating people are pretty rare too.
After a guy finishes a session with a gal or gals he walks back to his locker to retrieve money to pay. The women take the money and run off to tuck it away with their belongings. Some have change and others don’t but the front counter can always break money. Veterans usually show up with enough 50 Euro notes to avoid any hassles.
Mainhattan is clean, relatively safe, easy to find. Prices are reasonable, attractive women are always available and it is a pretty good representation of what a German FKK sauna is like. That’s why I chose to review it before any other similar places and it is also why I think the place deserves an above average score of 3.5 stars. Some may read this review and wonder how a place could score any higher. I urge them to stay tuned to this site so that they can read reviews of even better places in the near future that will put everything into context.
FKK Mainhattan, Schielestraße 45, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 60327. Open seven days a week from 10 am to 2 am. Phone: +49 (0)69-408-97618. Website: http://www.fkk-mainhattan.de Map on website. A mixed up commercial for the place is available here.