You'd be hard put to find a chimney to sweep in Germany. When the "Bezirksschornsteinfegermeister" comes to my house (terraced house in Berlin) once a year, he hooks up a flue gas measuring device to the central heating boiler (a gas boiler) to check that it complies with the environmental standards. He's in an out of the house in about ten minutes (and charges 56 EUR for the pleasure), and he doesn't get his hands dirty. The title of Schornsteinfeger is very much regulated here - he has a concession awarded by some licensing authority, and we don't get a choice of who comes to visit us. (We have a separate firm that maintains the boiler, preferably before the heating inspector's annual call is due).

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 49 mins (2005-04-09 17:19:07 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

As for the \"Meister\", this simply refers to the level of his qualifications (master craftsman). He is not a chief in the sense of being above others in the hierarchy. If the guy\'s qualifications are important in your context, you could add master craftsman in brackets. But if the focus is just on the job he does, I don\'t think this is necessary.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr 20 mins (2005-04-09 17:49:55 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Response to Nick\'s question: the description in \"Beruf Aktuell\" (an old 1994/95 edition published by the Bundesanstalt für Arbeit) sounds like they do clean chimneys and flues mechanically.
By the way, term \"Kaminkehrer\" is in the index, but with a reference to the entry on \"Schornsteinfeger.