BERLIN, Feb 12, 2010 (AFP) - Want to break up with your lover but haven't got the guts? Enter Bernd Dressler, head of the "Separation Agency" in Germany, who will calmly and efficiently do the dirty work for you. For a fee.
"I knock on the door. I introduce myself and I say that my client no longer wishes to continue the affair," Dressler explained to AFP in an interview in his soulless and functional office in Berlin. "It's very simple. It takes two minutes and it happens on the doorstep." Even as Valentine's Day approached, Dressler, a suave man in his 50s, was not the sort to get emotional. No tears. No hysterics. Just business.
"I'm just the messenger. It's not me breaking up the relationship. The person breaking it off is the person that hired me to do it."
The entrepreneur, originally in the insurance trade, has offered his unromantic services over the Internet for more than three years, taking his inspiration from a similar scheme in the United States.
"Dating agencies have been around for decades. I'm doing the same for break-ups," he said with a smile.
But giving your partner the boot is a serious business.
Dressler works only with clients who pay him in advance and sign a four-page contract detailing "three or four reasons" to finish the relationship. "I can also show this to the person concerned to show them this is not a gag," he said.
Dressler offers four levels of break-up service.
With "let's be friends," -- costing 29.95 euros (41 dollars), the bad news is communicated dryly over the phone.
"Leave me alone," for the same price, leaves the ditched lover in no doubt that Dressler's client does not want to hear from him or her again.
For another 10 euros, the unhappy Romeo -- or Juliet -- can opt for the "Break-up by letter" which, as the name implies, involves Dressler drafting a "Dear John" -- or "Dear Jane" on the client's behalf.
Finally comes the deluxe service, the "personal break-up" (64.95 euros), which sees Dressler himself turning up unannounced on the doorstep.
Clients can even choose how they want the shattering news delivered: firmly or tenderly. |
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