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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Germany

The list of Germany bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2008, 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 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

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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. • 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. The "Day of German Unity" is a public holiday introduced in 1990 to mark the reunification of East and West Germany. The choice of axing this particular public holiday was made on the assumption that the move would be less controversial than abolishing one of the religious public holidays. • More News Updates For up-to-the-minute news about public holidays trends and changes, visit our public holidays news and updates pages, 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. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: 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 (maps, demographic and economic statistics), Copp Clark (financial markets' trading hours, settlement holidays and currency non-clearing days), and the IFES Election Guide (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and past voter participation).

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 2008 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 public holidays news and updates pages, or subscribe to our free email newsletters.