Kehrwoche
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Kehrwoche ("week of sweeping") is the weekly duty of cleaning communal living areas, and is a custom in the Swabia region of southwest Germany. The custom began at the end of the 15th century as a way to improve household cleanliness. Until 1988, communal law required households to take turns every Saturday cleaning common property both indoors and outdoors, such as stairways, adjacent pathways, etc. Nowadays, Kehrwoche may be included in rental agreements as a weekly obligation for residents.
Stuttgart's municipal law from 1492 states, "To ensure that the city stays clean, everyone should remove their soil, (...) from your own street corner every 14 days, although only at night. Those who do not have a privy, must bring the waste to the stream." In the 18th century, a new law, the "clean alley regulation" came about, that added detail. In 1988 the kehrwoche was abolished as a communal law. It doesn't apply to public order in any part of Baden-Wurtemberg, but it can be part of house rules and rental contracts. The communal order obliges every owner of a house to hold parts of his property, like entrance areas and access paths as well as the public pavements free of dirt, snow and ice. There is no determined time or interval, making it a permanent obligation, contrary to the weekly duty on Saturdays as in the tradition of the kehrwoche.
