the German pimps, and my take on the film
at the scene in the bar after Strozek gets out of jail, the 2 German pimps are demanding that a third guy pay them "ten thousand" since he had sex with the ho, and they say it will be "fifteen thousand" if he does it again. 10,000 Deutsche Marks would be enough to buy a new car the 70s. I didn't really get this in terms of why they were asking for so much money. And it wasn't a mistranslation in the subtititles either; they said 10,000 in German (I can understand enough German to know this).
I thought this was a very good film especially when you consider the miniscule budget. I agree with whoever said the point of the film is about how some people will be downtrodden misfits no matter where they go. Some things in the film didn't make much sense. SPOILERS Obviously the cops were called when the store was robbed, yet when they catch the old man in the grocery store, they don't even try to look for a second suspect (you'd think whoever reported the robbery would have said there were 2 robbers....). The cops also say they can't turn off the dancing chickens or chair lift, but Strozek turns them on by simply flipping a switch marked "CHAIR LIFT ON/OFF"; you would think they could flip it w/o calling an electrician.