Chimney Sweeps

The work of inspecting and cleaning chimneys has been a part of German life for centuries, when fear of fire made safe heating a necessity and the chimney sweeps' work crucial.

But advances in modern heating have some wondering if the country's chimney sweeps need all the special protections they legally receive, including monopoly status in their assigned region.

Each of 7,888 German districts has its very own chimney sweep who is able to employ one to two helpers to watch over some 2,000 buildings. It takes would-be sweeps an average of 12 years to graduate from an apprenticeship to the point when they peer into chimneys and heating systems on their own.

But once they are assigned a district, legal protections keep them in business until they retire by mandating every chimney be checked at least once a year. The laws also forbid Germans from choosing who inspects their heating systems and allow chimney sweeps to enter buildings with the help of police and locksmiths against the owner's will if necessary.

Inspection fees vary according to district, though typical costs for a visit running between 50 euros and 100 euros ($65 and $130).

Lack of competition keeps sweeps honest

The monopoly districts came about during the Third Reich when then acting interior minister and SS chief Heinrich Himmler, as a way of gaining access to people's homes, decreed that each district have just one sweep. Those getting the job also had to be German, a requirement that was dropped in 1969.

Regardless of the districting plan's dark history, being free of having to find customers and fight off lower-priced competition keeps people safe, according to Johannes Töx, a master chimney sweep from Schmelz in Saarland.

"The sweep doesn't depend on his customer in a way that he would have to be afraid that if he will issue a negative report, the customer will take someone else the next time," he told the AP news agency.

German EU parliamentarian Alexander Graf Lambsdorff of the free-market liberal Free Democratic Party, said the market would be able to control the quality of services better than monopolistic districting.

"Whoever does excellent work in district A will do the same in district B," he said.

EU: Profession needs to be opened to others

Critics of the current situation also say modern heating systems no longer pose a danger great enough to warrant the legal protections.

In mid-October, the European Commission agreed and called on Germany to do away with the measures and open the country's flues to competition from all over the EU by Dec. 17 or face a suit at the European Court of Justice.

But whether or not people want to start looking for their own sweeps seems at least questionable. A recent opinion poll showed that 95 percent of Germans are satisfied with the services they currently receive.