A politician dubbed Germany‘s ‘craziest councillor’ has announced plans to host a sex party in his local City Hall.
While most councillors are focused on fixing problems with traffic lights or bin collections, Julien Ferrat wants to turn the city of Mannheim into a ‘swinger’s paradise’.
But Mr Ferrat, the leader of the liberal Die Mannheimer (Citizens of Mannheim) party, is facing pushback from the local government, in which the largest party is the socially conservative Christian Democratic Union.
The 35-year-old is an eager swinger and nudist, who previously invited German citizens on an eight-day fact-finding trip to the naturist village in Cap d’Agde, southern France to spread the word about non-monogamy.
That visit inspired him to try and turn his own city into a stopover destination for wife-swappers on their way to Cap d’Agde.
‘For people in northern Germany or Scandinavia, Cap d’Agde is too far to reach in one day,’ he told The Metro.
‘If they are looking for somewhere to stay, we can attract them to Mannheim. If we can attract more nudists and swingers it would be a good way to create more income for the city of Mannheim.’
Mr Ferrat says the town hall is ‘perfectly suited’ to a sex party and has so far secured 50 potential attendees to the saucy soiree. He plans to speak to them all individually to make sure they are genuine in their intentions.
Julien Ferrat, 35, is the leader of the liberal Die Mannheimer (Citizens of Mannheim) party
Ferrat was elected as a member of the city council in 2024, having previously served between 2014 and 2019
‘At the moment, the focus is on determining which of the citizens who contacted me are seriously interested,’ Mr Ferrat told The Telegraph.
‘Some of the 50 people who contacted me are part of the local swingers community, so they are ‘legit’. Some are people I don’t know yet. This week, I will start meeting the ‘unknown’ people in person.’
Home to around 330,000 people, Mannheim is a major industrial and university city in south-west Germany – and the birthplace of both the first gasoline-powered automobile and the precursor to the bicycle.
There are an estimated 128,000 swingers in Germany and Mr Ferrat believes becoming a mecca for kinky travellers could provide the city with an economic boost.
His other goal in hosting the sex party is to challenge the taboos against swinging, he told the newspaper.
However, his free love approach has not been warmly embraced by local civic leaders.
‘Based on the rudimentary information available so far, there are considerable doubts about the admissibility and feasibility of the plans,’ a Mannheim city hall spokesman told German news outlet SWR.
The city’s administration said he had not specified a date or a room, or explained how the proposed event related to his role as a member of the municipal council.
Mr Ferrat was elected as a member of the city council in 2024, having previously served between 2014 and 2019.
He was dubbed Germany’s ‘craziest councillor’ by the newspaper Die Zeit in 2017. On the party’s website he lists his key priorities as ‘combating rising rents, increasing security, and ensuring good healthcare’.
