Prostitution in Poland is legal, but operating brothels or other forms of pimping or coercive prostitution and prostitution of minors are prohibited.
History
Early period The travelling prostitute is recorded in the tenth century. Dozens of brothels thrived on the outskirts of central Warsaw since its establishment as the national capital in the sixteenth century, as in other large Polish cities and towns. These cities established municipal brothels and taxed both prostitutes and brothel keepers. The first recorded brothel (Dom publiczny - literally public house) in Poland is considered to be in Bochnia in the 15th century, which catered to merchants who came to buy salt from the mines there.
A Hungarian explorer to Poland in the early seventeenth century, Márton Szepsi Csombor, wrote that when he passed through Lipnica Murowana they were "surrounded by a swarm of unclean maidens to flatter and compliment us and play and sing". In Bochnia the city authorities from time to time passed ordinances against "harlots and loose people". In 1610 the mayor and town councillors appointed fines, and an ordinance from 1743 called for severe punishment for adultery. The trade guilds demanded a proper "moral" life of its members, one of the articles of the butcher's guild set a payment of 12 cents into a box for "debauchery or starting a conversation with a married woman".
From the fifteenth century, police inspected brothels and removed women thought to be infected. The sixteenth century saw the establishment of venereal disease hospitals such as St. Sebastian's in Kraków in 1528 and St. Lazarus, in Warsaw.
Nineteenth century (Polish Partition) During the period of Polish Partition (1795–1918) prostitution flourished openly, whereas previously (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) (1648–1795) it had been confined to brothels and back streets near army garrisons. The official position of the occupying Russian authorities was that prostitution was a "necessary evil" (zło konieczne), and reflected the administration of prostitution in Russia. The administration was the responsibility of the police under the Ministry of the Interior. Local committees made of police and physicians administered the regulations.
Polish garrisons had their own brothels, and as Europe progressively adopted the Napoleonic system of regulation, state-regulated prostitution became established in 1802 (in Prussian and Russian Poland) and in 1859 in Austrian Galicia. In 1843 the Russian governor introduced a tax on brothels and prostitution, and 30 years later created the committees to oversee regulation. The regulations required all women in commercial sex to register and undergo regular gynecological examinations which were recorded in 'passports'. Despite this, there existed an illegal sector of women who chose not to become part of the public register.
As police regulated the zoning of brothels away from the public eye, professional prostitutes moved toward working as independents. The regulations were very detailed. The police allowed a premise to open if it was situated at least 315 metres from a church or school, while advertising was prohibited. Other regulations included forbidding a premise to operate under the guise of another institution, such as cafes and billiard room. Portraits of the Royal Family or other state symbols were forbidden, as was hanging out of windows incompletely dressed. Fees varied with the class of institution and proprietors kept three-quarters of the proceeds, for overheads. There was no charge for the treatment of syphilis. The public could inspect the medical records before selecting a worker – but she could refuse a client if he was drunk. Although there were penalties for overworking the women, they were obliged to service 10–12 clients a day. Similar regulations were in effect in the Prussian-occupied territories. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was less centrally controlled than that of Russia and Prussia. On the other hand, women could be transported anywhere in the empire. Under Empress Maria Theresa and the Constitutio criminalis Theresiana, things were less tolerant, and amongst other things the Morals Police were introduced, although ultimately all these measures proved futile.
In parallel, police closed many of the larger brothels due to public pressure. Police had the powers to forcibly register women they suspected, which could simply be women having relationships outside of marriage.
A number of factors contributed to the growth of the sex trade in nineteenth-century Poland, including increasing urbanization, with growing cities and a population shift from the land to the towns and cities. The increasing feminization of poverty was also a contributing factor. So prevalent was paid sex amongst domestic servants, that a 1913 regulation required them to register for medical exams as well. A second class was waitresses, and after 1906, they too were registered.
As the supply increased, so did the demand. 40% of Warsaw university students stated that their first sexual encounter was commercial, and estimates at the time suggested that over 80% of high school and university students bought sex. As throughout history, the military was a major source of demand, and because of concerns about venereal disease, authorities instituted regulations similar to those in the British Empire (Contagious Diseases Acts), requiring any young woman on her own to submit to examination.
A great deal of attention began to be paid to prostitution during this period. This increased attention needs to be interpreted in the light of nineteenth-century European attitudes to prostitution, where it was becoming the subject of almost daily discourse. The second wave of moral panic also swept Poland during the Second Republic (1918–1939). However what was often neglected was that Polish sex workers comprised a potentially upwardly mobile, economically ambitious lower class, that contributed significantly to Polish social and economic life.
Household servants, nursemaids, and wet nurses were among those known to rely on commercial sex to supplement their low wages, while middle-class husbands and their adolescent sons became regular clientele. Unsavoury images of prostitution, such as Jack the Ripper "Kuba rozpruwacz" were imported from abroad.
Physicians sounded the alarm about a rise in syphilis rates, while the Roman Catholic Church, middle-class charities, and Jewish aid agencies set up societies to rescue "fallen women" from the wages of sin. Chastity or "purity" societies, and women's groups organized meetings and conferences. Feminists composed moral treatises and established international organizations to combat the trafficking of women. "White slavery" attracted much media attention as in other countries. However, the bulk of the concern related to the open display of solicitation in public places. Public discourse emphasized not only this deviant behaviour but also the victim role, trapped and in the hands of pimps and traffickers. These stories were mingled with antisemitism, as the perpetrators (like infamous Zvi Migdal) were frequently depicted as Jewish. These scenes also appeared in the literature of the day, such as Bronislaw Szczygielski's A Woman - A Body: The Odyssey of a Fallen Woman (Kobieta-Cialo: Odyseja kobiety upadlej, Warsaw, 1914). Moral Panic and the Prostitute in Partitioned Poland: Middle-Class Respectability in Defence of the Modern Nation. Keely Stauter-Halsted. Slavic Review Vol. 68, No. 3 (Fall, 2009), pp. 557-581
During the First World War, the establishment of brothels on the Russian Front was considered a major strategic initiative, despite protests from Empress Zyta. Naturally separate institutions were required for officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates.
Second Republic (1918–1939) The new Polish authorities were faced with a large number of problems arising from the recently ceased hostilities. One of the first acts of the newly reconstituted nation was the Basic Sanitation Law of July 1919 (Zasadnicza ustawa sanitarna). Under this law, brothels were suppressed on 6 September 1922, while setting up a system of supervision of independent workers. A maximum of two workers were allowed in any house.
The State brought many cases of prosecution against organized prostitution and pimps during this period.
Postwar period (People's Republic 1945–1989) In the aftermath of Second World War, Poland became a communist state, known as the People's Republic of Poland. Prostitution did not exist officially, as it was a maxim of Marxism, that prostitution would disappear in a socialist society with equality of means. Nonetheless, it was widespread. People who extorted sex workers were occasionally prosecuted.
The main centres were hotels and restaurants and the main client's foreigners. As such prostitution formed an important source of hard currency. Despite this, the Republic's special services were actually running hotel rings. In this way, they could obtain information about foreigners, compromise and extort people.
1945–1948 In the initial years (1945–1948) there was a registration scheme, and special sections were set up to deal with "enemies of morality" (wrogami moralności), but this was abolished when other priorities engaged the State. 1948–1952 saw forced labour camps. Despite continued efforts to eradicate prostitution, many elements of centrally-planned socialism actually contributed to it, such as the 'Great Socialist Construction' (wielkie budowy socjalizmu) which saw the migration of large numbers of men. A memo from the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee (including Bolesław Bierut who was then Secretary-General), dated 23 November 1955, states that in 1949 there were 4,000 sex workers in Poland, in 1954 1,700 and that 6,000 had been arrested. It also refers to the difficulties in the struggle to abolish the practice. It refers to the prewar period when "prostitution not only was not a crime but on the contrary - officially recognized and protected by the state". Data from the Ministry of the Interior, dated 9 February 1957 refer to 1,500 workers in the six major cities.
1960–1983 The period from the 1960s saw a slight ideological "thaw" that culminated in the fall of the Iron Curtain (Żelazna kurtyna) in 1989. Changes in Polish society included increasing tourism and trade with the West, acceptability of foreign currency and expanding hotel business, all factors conducive to the growth of the sex trade. Although liable to a large error margin, estimates of the numbers of sex workers were 7,267 in 1962, and 9,847 in 1969. Sometimes referred to as "Servants of Venus" (Służebnice Wenery), sex workers started to become one of the higher income earning groups. Venues included market towns, port cities, hotels and environs and around railway stations. Well known areas for the less wealthy included the East Side and cafes along Aleje Jerozolimskie as well as the famous Pigalak area in Warsaw.
This period was notable for a criminal case involving the porters at the Hotel Europejski who were living off the trade they supplied. However, these prosecutions were the exception in a trade largely opaque to the authorities and an important part of the economy. A single client could net a sex worker the equivalent of an average monthly wage, and some could make the same as corporate executives. Both workers and clients benefited - for instance, a US10 fee for a "short service" was very affordable for foreign visitors, and only 20% of prices in West Germany.
Martial Law (1981–1983) and the liberalisation of the 80s