COLOGNE 



nlations for the community. Among other things 

 the eiti/ens were held ivsmnsible for the re- 



Basis of 



noval of the street refuse, [n accordance with Present 

 tliis law the mayor issued in 1801 an order 

 roneerning street cleaning which is the foundation of 

 tin- system of the present day. The groundwork of 

 this order was as follows: 



1. The inhabitants were obliged to clean and sweep 

 the streets before their houses or property to the middle 

 of the street and to pile up the dirt in order to facili- 

 tate removal. 



'2. Rubbish from the "houses must be collected in 

 baskets or tubs and carried to the carts which were 

 provided for the removal of the refuse. 



3. The contractor for street cleaning must promptly 

 remove the accumulated street dirt as well as the rub- 

 bish collected from the houses. 



This order was important in that it fixed the limits 

 of the duties of the citizens and those of the city as a 

 whole. The sweeping was made the duty of the inhabi- 

 tants and the actual removal of the refuse the business 

 of the community. Moreover, this order for the first 

 time provided for the removal of house refuse. Pre- 

 vious orders had simply provided for the removal of 

 dirt from the streets. 



In later orders, the owner of the house and, in doubt- 

 ful cases, the inhabitant of the ground floor, was 

 made responsible for the cleaning. Instead of twice 

 weekly, daily cleaning was initiated. In a police 

 ordinance of June 4, 1889, the owners of unbuilt 

 real estate were required to keep the same clean. 

 Finally, by an ordinance of November 3, 1892, the 

 orders which had covered only Old Cologne were 



141 



