Germany: Catholic Church’s $2.3 Billion Store Sells 2500 “Erotic” Books

The Catholic Church in Germany owns a $2.3 billion bookseller called Weltbild, that sells, among other items, 2500 “erotic” books, with titles like “Fuckable,” Lawyer’s Whore,” and “Sluts’ Boarding School.” The bookstore owns 20% of the book market in Germany, and is second in book sales only to Amazon. Weltbild is 100% owned by the Catholic Church, and German locals have been trying for a decade to get the Church to stop selling “erotica,” a direct violation of the Church’s teachings. Weltbild roughly translates into “world image” or “world view.”

“Weltbild tries to prevent the distribution of possibly pornographic content,” a Catholic Church spokesperson told reporters.

“Well, it’s prevention efforts have apparently not been so successful,” states a report in Worldcrunch, an online news agency. “For more than 10 years, a group of committed Catholics has been trying to point out what is going on to Church authorities, and they are outraged at the hypocrisy of the spokesman’s statement. In 2008, the group sent a 70-page document to all the bishops whose dioceses have shared ownership of Weltbild for 30 years, detailing evidence of the sale of questionable material.”

Today, the Augsburg-based company employs 6,400 people, has an annual turnover of 1.7 billion euros, and an online business in Germany second only to Amazon. Weltbild is also Germany’s leading book seller, controlling 20% of the domestic bookstore market. Profits are regularly reinvested in the company with an eye to rapidly increase the market share – an increase that is only possible if Weltbild continues to sell materials that are not compatible with the teachings of the Church.

The 2,500 erotic books in their online catalogue, including those from Blue Panther Books, an erotic book publisher owned by Weltbild, are only one example. Their titles include: “Anwaltshure” (Lawyer’s Whore), “Vögelbar” (F—kable) and “Schlampen-Internat” (Sluts’ Boarding School).

The Church also owns a 50% share in publishing company Droemer Knaur which produces pornographic books, and so indirectly is also a publisher of pornographic material, titles including “Nimm mich hier und nimm mich jetzt!” (Take Me Here, Take Me Now!), and “Sag Luder zu mir!” (Call Me Slut!).

Editor’s Note: The Catholic Church has issued an extremely disturbing press release, stating it will take legal action against some publishers who deemed their “erotic” offerings as “pornography,” claiming the erotic nature of books, such as “Fuckable,” Lawyer’s Whore,” and “Sluts’ Boarding School,” do not reach the legal definition of “pornography.” 

This is disturbing and shameless on far too many fronts. Instead of apologizing, the Church — who continues on a path of claiming it can do no wrong — is the aggressor once again.

However, as a result, we have updated the piece to address their concerns.