From the July 2007 issue of HMI Profil, the newsletter of Hamburg-Mannheimer International, a German insurance company. In June 2007, HMI hired at least twenty prostitutes to entertain insurance salesmen at a thermal spa in Budapest. According to internal reports released in September, the baths were surrounded by canopy beds, and the women wore color-coded ribbons that indicated the range of sexual services they offered. Translated from the German by Natascha Hoffmeyer.

Some things are just too much. Or they are so crazy, legendary, and indescribable that they almost shouldn’t exist. But rest assured, they do. And only here at HMI! Extraordinary is normal for us. And that is exactly what Hungary’s capital embodied for two days.

Budapest! One of the most beautiful cities in Eastern Europe. A cultural treasure chest. Everywhere in the cityscape of the Danube metropolis, traces of its golden age abound and gorgeous buildings hark back to grander times.

All right, enough already with culture. Sightseeing and dusty stories of yore can all stay locked up for now. Where HMI is, that’s where the party is, that’s where all hell breaks loose. It was supposed to get wet. In all imaginable situations and positions. Whether at the pool, the bath, inside with drink after drink, or just in the most beautiful dreams. Anyone who forgot his bathing suit this time had only two options to salvage the situation: buy a new one or simply go without. Who decided to do what remains a trade secret—just as all recording devices were to stay home this time around. But anyone working at HMI has a great deal of imagination, and that is what you should use right about now.