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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Germany

The list of Germany bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2009, comes from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers. The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. Qualified professionals can license data for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

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25 Mar 2009 (Berliner Morgenpost-Berlin) Germany's CDU party, member of the current ruling federal coalition, has introduced legislation for Reformation Day (October 31) to become a public holiday in the state of Berlin, which includes Germany's capital. • 08 Jul 2008 (Mitteldeutsche Zeitung-Leizig) In its last session before the summer break, this Wednesday, the Leipzig city council started considering a proposal from the Fraktion Bündnis 90/Die Grünen to make October 9 a city-wide (working) public holiday called «Tag der Friedlichen Revolution» (Day of the Peaceful Revolution) to commemorate the peaceful revolution which led to the end of the Soviet occupation of East Germany. • 27 Nov 2007 (Bayerische Runkfunk) Bavaria's Ministerpräsident, Günther Beckstein, has announced that he wishes to re-instate the Buß- und Bettag Public Holiday (Day of Prayer and Repentance) to the list of public holidays observed in Bavaria. • 18 Nov 2007 (n-tv.de) In 2008, the date of May Day and Ascension will fall on the same date. But while Belgium has declared the next day, May 2nd, as a one-off public holiday, recent media reports indicate that Germany will not declare a day in lieu public holiday. • 01 Nov 2007 (Evangelischer Pressedienst) The Northern Evangelical Church is mounting a campaign to push for the addition of the October 31 Reformation Day to the list of public holidays of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg before 2017, the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's nailing of his list of 95 points on the door of the Church of Wittenberg. • 19 Sep 2007 (Die Welt + Deutsche Presse-Agentur) While the government is discussing the moving of National Day to a permanent Sunday occurrence, a recent survey in the former eastern part of Germany, more than 2/3 of respondents said they preferred to keep the current October 3 public holiday, while 16% would prefer to have November 9 as a public holiday. • 08 May 2007 (pressrelations.de) A recent poll taken by the Postbank reveals that only 26 percent of those polled are in favor of the removal of one of Germany's public holidays, to help fund State pension plans, while 63 percent are against. • 07 Dec 2006 The chairman of the Bavarian Catholic State Comittee, Helmut Mangold, has re-iterated the church's will to keep on fighting against Sunday shopping in Bavaria. • 07 Nov 2006 The Evangelical-Lutheran Bishop of Bavaria, a predominantly Catholic German State, has called for Reformation Day (a Protestant holiday celebrated on October 31) to become a country-wide public holiday until at least 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. • 04 Nov 2004 (Deutsche Welle) Germany's Finance Minister, Hans Eichel, is scheduled to present a budget plan which will include celebrating the "Day of German Unity" on the first Sunday in October rather than October 3. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Germany public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

German States (for regional holidays): BW=Baden-Württemberg, BY=Bayern, BE=Berlin, BB=Brandenburg, HB=Hansestadt Bremen, HH=Hansestadt Hamburg, HE=Hessen, MV=Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, NI=Niedersachsen, NW=Nordrhein-Westfalen, RP=Rheinland-Pfalz, SL=Saarland, SN=Sachsen, ST=Sachsen-Anhalt, SH=Schleswig-Holstein, TH=Thüringen. • Weekend Public Holidays: Public holidays that occur on a weekend remain on that date (ie. they are not moved to another date, such as the following Monday, for example). • With the exception of Christmas, Easter, New Year's Day, and Labour Day, public holidays are all optional and it is left to the discretion of each region as to which holidays it will allow. • Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are not official public holidays but many take them off; they are however bank holidays. • Carnival Rose Monday (The Monday before Ash Wednesday): Cologne and Rhine region. • Epiphany: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt. • Corpus Christi: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and some localities in Saxony and Thuringia. • Assumption Day: Saarland, and in Bavarian communities with mostly Catholic populations. • Reformation Day: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and some localities in Thuringia. • All Saints' Day: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland. • Repentance Day: Saxony only. It was one of the national public holidays until 1994. • Germany International Codes DE and DEU (2 and 3-letter ISO3166 codes) and .de (ICANN national top-level internet domain). • Other Sources of Information The following specialized websites are also a good source of Germany information and news: Deutsche Bundesbank (Germany central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (Germany maps, demographics and economic statistics), the IFES (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and voter participation in Germany), and Wikipedia (includes Germany commemorative dates that are not necessarily public holidays).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in Germany, the holiday may be regional or non-official or limited to certain religious and/or linguistic groups, or begin at a time other than midnight. Note that religious holidays are included only if they are national public holidays, or if the national labour code has specific holiday allowances for employees of specific religions. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world.

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2009 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Germany, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of Germany, before planning any trip to Germany. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.