In Austria and Germany, hand and hitch-up services (i.e. services of manual work and with hitched-up cart or more modern vehicles, German: Hand- und Spanndienste or Hand- und Zugdienste) or more contemporary (mandatory) municipal services (German: "Gemeindedienste") are allowed in some Austrian and German states. In the 1950s in rural municipalities, citizens were drafted for mandatory community service frequently, but nowadays only small municipalities draft their citizens, like the German town of Winsen an der Aller once a year or Bezau in Austria.[1][2]
Beside several states' regulations, Hand- und Spanndienste are backed by international agreements like the agreement on the Forced Labour Convention of the International Labour Organization of 1930. The following work services, especially for military services, are exceptions of forced or compulsory labour:[3]
Hand and hitch-up services in history were services for the reduction of municipal taxes.[where?] The citizens of the municipality were required to do certain physical work, which can be summarised under the historical terms corvée or socage. They were based in Germany on the Prussian municipal tax bill of 14 July 1893 and in Austria on state law regulations.[4][5]
There were different types of services:
Hand and hitch-up services in history often have been done by the public. That 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.) have usually been provided by the authorities.
Currently, the Austrian state of Vorarlberg is executing Hand- und Zugdienste on the level of the municipalities regularly.[6] According to the respective municipal regulations, basically there are two versions of executing the mandatory services for the drafted citizens: in some municipalities the citizens can choose, if they participate in manual work for the community or if they prefer to pay additional taxes as a substitute to the compulsory community work. In other communities, the administration transferred the work to private companies, so every citizen, that is in age to be drafted, has to pay the additional substitute tax. By local law it is determined, who is obliged for Hand- und Zugdienste-services. For example, in Bürserberg, only one person per household is obliged to serve, in Bezau all male citizens between the age of 18 and 60 years.[5][2]
Even today, municipal regulations in Germany provide that municipalities may, under certain circumstances, oblige their inhabitants to carry out manual and hitch-up services, such as in Baden-Württemberg,[7] Bavaria[8] or Lower Saxony. They are public service obligations within the scope of the German Constitution[9] and are not contrary to the prohibition of compulsory labor, if the following conditions are fulfilled: