FRANKFURT (AFP) — German sex-shop owners and erotic film makers, badly hit by the economic crisis, are pushing for state aid that has also been requested by US peers, a press report said on Friday.

“Economic aid would be judicious,” erotic trade federation official Uwe Kaltenberg [pictured] was quoted by the regional newspaper WAZ as saying in a report to appear on Saturday but released in advance.

The German sector comprises mainly small and medium-sized outfits that could use financial aid for things such as continuing education, he said.

The sex-trade official held few illusions regarding the chances of getting Berlin to lend a hand however.

“The rescue of Opel is a better draw during an election than support for the small and medium sized companies in our sector,” Kaltenberg acknowledged in reference to the German automaker and a legislative poll scheduled in September.

Germany’s erotic industry, which includes the nationwide chain Beate Uhse, has suffered heavily from downloading of X-rated videos from the Internet, and the call by Kaltenberg follows one by two leading figures in the US sex sector.

Earlier this month, Larry Flynt and Joe Francis called upon the US congress to approve an economic support package worth five billion dollars (3.8 billion euros).

Flynt and “Girls Gone Wild” video series creator Francis asked the newly convened Congress “to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America”.