One of the biggest boondoggles of German city life is the winter snow service (
Winterdienst). Every apartment house, co-op or office building in Frankfurt has one person or company that is responsible for making sure that the sidewalk in front of the building is clear of snow and ice. Allegedly -- I've never bothered to research this -- the city is not liable for damages caused to pedestrians who slip and fall on the sidewalks in front of private homes or buildings. A lot of money changes hands each year from building owners to providers of winter services. The payments are made in advance for the promise of diligent winter service. In reality, the house owners only purchase a deep pocket and, presumably, an insurance policy to sue in the event someone slips or falls and sues the owners. I've lost track of the number of times we've changed winter service. Some houses are lucky enough to have a
Hausmeister, a custodian or caretaker responsible for cleaning and grooming the common areas, who often lives in or near the building, and who also clears the walkways of snow and ice. You can tell the lucky houses that still have a
Hausmeister, because you actually can see the sidewalks after the
Hausmeister has cleared the snow. The private winter service companies rarely do a good job. Sometimes they simply drop some granulate on the snow (
Streuen). Sometimes they have motorized tractors of different sizes that run a rotating brush over the snow. This rarely clears the sidewalk. The tractors with blades also usually leave a fair bit of snow on the sidewalks. The sidewalks are made of bricks or
setts, so I guess there is a risk of tearing them up if the blade is too low. In any event, the sidewalks in Frankfurt reveal that most houses use a winter service. The trusty
Hausmeister has gone the way of the concierge, a luxury few can afford. Days after a major snow, many houses show no sign of loving winter care to their sidewalks. Even a hotel on our street, owned by an asian consortium, appears not to understand its duties to clear snow.
After no sight of our winter service provider for 48 hours, I finally called our property manager (
Hausverwaltung) to complain. She mentioned that none of her houses in the neighborhood had been cleared, and she contacted our winter service provider to demand performance. Meanwhile, the winter service provider for the house next door -- a large firm that we had used the winter before but that also did not perform regularly and so was fired -- promptly cleared the sidewalk in front of our neighbor's house. That hurt. The worker then used the tractor blade to create a hump of snow across the sidewalk along the boundary of our house. Was that payback for being fired last year? In any event, shortly after his visit, we watched in horror as a mother pushing a buggy almost dumped her child in the snow when she hit the bump. We called the property manager of the house next door (city survival demands that you learn such contact information) to complain about the hump, but nothing was ever done. At some point someone scattered a few handfuls of granulate (
Splitt -- not a beach in Croatia) on our sidewalk but did nothing for the walkway leading up to our house entrance. Further complaints were lodged. Our property manager suggested that we keep a diary so that we could claim a refund against the service provider. After another bout of snow I was cleaning off our car in case we needed to go somewhere and noticed a worker diligently clearing snow from the sidewalk in front of the other next door neighbor's house. He was using a snow shovel. A sidewalk cleared by hand glistened darkly all the way to the corner! I promptly asked him who he worked for. He was a self-employed
Hausmeister, and it turns out that he used to work for our house, too. We have an eccentric neighbor in the house who loves to complain about the custodians. She must have caused him to be fired at some point years ago. It looks as if our property manager, pushed no doubt by the eccentric neighbor, has dug us into a hole and that no one is coming to dig us out. I can't bring myself to start a "snow diary". I see myself turning into one of those grumpy German men who have nothing better to do than spend all day complaining about the lack of order around them. I've already written to the city about the abominable parking system on our street. Next thing you know I'll be shouting at little children to be quiet. Of course, we have a snow shovel in the basement. I could simply go downstairs and clear things to my satisfaction. Aside from the issue of what unthinkable liability I might expose myself to, there also is the certain knowledge that all my neighbors would think me a fool. I mentioned the possibility of clearing the sidewalk myself to Frau Bloggerboy, and she suggested that I was crazy. So, rather than sleeping soundly knowing that no one will slip on our sidewalk and sue us, I keep an eye out for the winter service and stew in my own discontent, wondering about exceptions to my insurance coverage. "Dear snow diary ...". Aaahhh, go ahead and sue me.
This contraption makes a helluva noise, the exhaust fumes
stink to high heaven, but you still can't see the sidewalk!
