"So, then, If You've Got Money, Give It to Me, and Let's Get This Slippery Union Over With"

On the History of Illegal Prostitution in Ljubljana at the Turn of the Century

Abstract

In the years before the First World War, the town of Ljubljana was struggling with the problem of prostitution. The problem was not taken care of until 1905, when the municipal council adopted regulations for controlling prostitution, by which the town's authorities introduced routine police and medical inspections in whorehouses and of individual prostitution. Many examples from everyday life, however, demonstrate that these measures were not very successful. Illegal prostitution was, as a rule, widespread in all the more out-of-the-way parts of the town. In addition to the town's Tivoli park and secluded and dark streets, the most popular whereabouts of Ljubljana's streetwalkers were sheds, huts and haystacks. Some of them also carried out the oldest profession in apartments, inns and hotels. Naturally, prostitution was shadowed already in those days by pimps.