How The Germans Were Tamed To Purity - Alternative View

How The Germans Were Tamed To Purity - Alternative View
How The Germans Were Tamed To Purity - Alternative View

Video: How The Germans Were Tamed To Purity - Alternative View

Video: How The Germans Were Tamed To Purity - Alternative View
Video: John Kampfner on Why the Germans Do it Better | PoliticsBooksToday 2024, May
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Even "wild" people can be taught to clean up after themselves, if you approach the issue wisely!

An interesting historical fact, a must-read for all officials involved in the improvement of cities.

Cleanliness in Germany, and specifically in Swabia, was not "innate", but rather even compulsory. For a long time, the Germans dumped garbage, ashes, dead pets, bones and slops from the kitchen stupidly over the fence, or wherever they had to. As a result, they had unsanitary conditions, diseases, and villages and cities that were so foul.

In the 15th century, the Count of Württemberg got sick of this stench, and he began to issue decrees that they say that the manure and shit that livestock and people produce should be taken out of the outskirts, or at least "to the river", and only at night. The decrees, of course, were scored, since it was unrealistic to check their implementation, and it was too expensive to put the police in each barn, and it was difficult to cancel bribes and treats for the servants of the law.

Then the count issued a new decree, as a result of which in the Swabian cities it suddenly became CLEAN. The essence of the decree boiled down to the following: if you noticed that your neighbor hasn't been cleaning up the garbage for a couple of weeks and didn't report him, then not only he, but you will be punished. And if you reported, then you have the right to a part of his land. As a result, every Saturday everyone demonstratively and carefully cleaned up the garbage in front of their yard, reasonably fearing snitching and neighboring intrigues.

On the one hand, one can consider such methods as state coercion to snitching and violence against personal freedom. On the other hand, the Swabians very quickly established perfect order in their villages and towns, and the Swabian "Kervoche" became part of the cultural heritage.