Hand and Tension Services

Hand and tension services (German: Hand- und Spanndienste) are services for the reduction of municipal taxes. It is obliged for the citizens of the community to do certain physical work, which can be summarized under the historical terms Corvée or Socage. They are based in Germany on the Prussian municipal tax bill of 14 July 1893.^[1]

There are different types of services:

• Hand Services: The citizen must perform work with his own hand.
• Tensioning services (of tensioning of the draft animals): The person obliged to provide the service has to put a team or carriages (train cattle and dishes).
• Shovel services: construction of buildings, construction of roads, ditches

Hand and tension services in history often have been done by the public. This was, for example, the setting of field bridges in the fields, the preservation of dams or even the construction of agricultural roads and local roads. The necessary materials (stones, wood, etc.) usually has been provided the authorities.

Hand and tension services today

Even today municipal regulations in Germany provide that municipalities may, under certain circumstances, oblige their inhabitants to carry out manual and tension services, for example in Baden-Württemberg^[2] or Bavaria.^[3] These are public service obligations within the meaning of the German constitution^[4] which are not contrary to the prohibition of compulsory labor.

See also

Unfree labour

References