Linienstraße (Dortmund)  The Linienstraße is a street in Dortmund, Germany, known for prostitution. The street is located north of the city's main railway station Dortmund Hauptbahnhof in the Stadtbezirk Innenstadt-Nord district. There have been brothels on Linienstraße since the beginning of the 20th century. Under the "Sperrbezirk" regulations, prostitution in central Dortmund is only permitted in Linienstraße. The street is about 200 meters long and has a privacy screen across the entrance. A sign at the north entrance to the street, referring to a defunct law from 1957, states access is only for adults. In the Linienstraße there is window prostitution, with services and prices usually being negotiated at the window before the client enters. According to the city archives, there was street prostitution on Marschallstraße in 1898. By 1904, the street name had changed to Linienstraße and there were brothels on the street. The "Dortmund Midnight Mission" (Dortmunder Mitternachtsmission) was founded in 1918 to administer to the needs of the prostitutes. Irish poet and author Samuel Beckett's poem "Dortmunder", published in 1935 in "Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates", tells of Beckett drinking in Dortmund and ending up in Linienstraße. In 2010, one of the brothels was sold at auction for 1.1 million euros, another brothel was offered for sale in 2018. A large anti-sex trafficking poster was erected on the end wall on the house on the corner of Linienstraße and Steinstraße in 2017. The poster was erected in collaboration with the Midnight Mission and financed by the 16 houses and 200 women of Linienstraße. Artist Bettina Brökelschen spent two years painting Linienstraße and the women working there. Her works were the subject of an exhibition, "People in Linienstraße", in 2019. Prostitution in Linienstraße was temporarily suspended in mid-March 2020 as part of the preventative measures introduced during the coronavirus pandemic. At the instigation of the Midnight Mission a series of "round table" discussions about prostitution in the city took place, starting in 2002. Initially the attendees were the Midnight Mission, Dortmund Police and involved council departments, soon Linienstraße's brothel operators became involved to agree common goals.