Breaking up is hard, pay someone to do it

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.

"It's very simple. It takes two minutes and it happens on the doorstep." Even as Valentine's Day approaches, Dressler, a suave man in his 50s, is 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. Dressler works only for clients who pay him in advance and sign a contract detailing "three or four reasons" to end the relationship.