In Germany, schools are the business of the states. On 28 October 1964 the heads of government of all the states adopted the Hamburger Abkommen, the Hamburg Agreement. It set a common start of the school year on 1 August and a total of 75 working days of school holidays. It also set uniform names for the types of school and for the grades, and a foreign language in all types of school from grade 5. Moving the start of the school year required short school years in many states. After long negotiations the change was complete by 1 August 1967. The agreement stayed in force until 9 February 2021.