The world’s first sex store was started in Germany by a female ex-pilot
shortly after the Second World War!
Beate Uhse AG is the most successful company in
the German sex industry, and the country’s most trusted pornography retailer.
It was created by former German pilot Beate Uhse-Rotermund in 1946. Originally,
it was a distributer of pamphlets on family planning called Schrift X (in
English: Writing X or Paper X), which were very successful.
In 1962, the company opened the doors to the
world’s first sex shop in Flensburg, West Germany. The Beate Uhse Store enjoyed
immediate success due to its respected brand name. By 1992, the company owned
30 of these sex shops and 25 “adult cinemas.” It now employs over 1500
employees and is active in 60 countries. Uhse remained the chairwoman of the
company until her death in 2001.
