In 1955, the German Trade Union Confederation, the DGB, called for a five-day week of eight-hour days, a 40-hour week, with full pay. Its slogan for May Day 1955 was 40 Stunden sind genug – 5 Tage sind genug, 40 hours are enough, five days are enough. For May Day 1956, the DGB printed a poster with the line Samstags gehört Vati mir. On Saturdays, Daddy belongs to me. The five-day week then came industry by industry, in coal mining in 1959 and in banking in 1961. The 40-hour week was agreed in printing in 1965 and in the metal industry in 1967.
More Time for Living, Loving, Laughing
On 14 May 1984, IG Metall began a strike for the 35-hour week in the metal industry of North Württemberg and North Baden. Hesse followed a week later. The union’s slogan was Mehr Zeit zum Leben, Lieben, Lachen, more time for living, loving, laughing. The employers locked out about half a million workers, ten times as many as were on strike. The dispute lasted until 4 July 1984. An arbitration led by the former defense minister Georg Leber cut the working week to 38.5 hours. By 1995, it had fallen in steps to 35 hours in the West German metal industry.
Time Instead of Money
In February 2018, IG Metall and the metal employers of Baden-Württemberg agreed that employees may reduce their working week to 28 hours for up to two years. Afterward they have a full right to return to full time. Shift workers, carers and parents of young children may also choose eight days off instead of a new annual payment. In November 2018, a union survey of works councils in 1,400 companies found that about 190,000 employees planned to take the days off.
In March 2024, after months of strikes, the train drivers’ union GDL and Deutsche Bahn agreed to cut the working week for shift workers from 38 to 35 hours by 2029, with no loss of pay. Workers who prefer money can choose to work longer, up to 40 hours a week, for more pay.
Leave Is for Rest
Under the Federal Leave Act, leave must as a rule be granted in one block. If it is split, and the employee is entitled to more than twelve days, one part must cover at least twelve working days in a row. During leave, the employee may not do paid work that goes against the purpose of the leave. An employee who falls ill during leave does not lose those days. With a doctor’s certificate, they are not counted as leave.
Leave must also be taken. In 2018, the European Court of Justice decided the case of Tetsuji Shimizu, who had worked for the Max Planck Society and claimed pay for 51 days of leave he had not taken. On 19 February 2019, the Federal Labor Court decided the case on that basis. Statutory leave now lapses at the end of the year only if the employer has asked the employee to take it and has warned clearly and in time that it will otherwise be lost.
No Duty to Read the Message
An emergency paramedic in Schleswig-Holstein was off duty when his employer changed his roster for the next morning, with a start at 6 a.m. The employer phoned him and sent text messages. He did not respond. The employer recorded an unexcused absence, deducted hours and issued a reprimand. After a similar case months later, it issued a formal warning. On 27 September 2022, the regional labor court of Schleswig-Holstein ruled for the paramedic. A change of roster takes effect only when it reaches the employee. An employee in his free time is not obliged to read messages from work. Opening and reading them counts as working time.
The Right to Work Less
Since 1 January 2001, an employee in Germany who has been with an employer for more than six months may ask to reduce working hours permanently. The employer must agree unless operational reasons stand against it. The right applies in companies with more than 15 employees. Since 1 January 2019, employees may also reduce their hours for a fixed period of one to five years and then return to their former hours. This Brückenteilzeit, bridge part-time, applies in companies with more than 45 employees.
The Leisure Park Debate
On 21 October 1993, Chancellor Helmut Kohl gave a government statement in the Bundestag on securing Germany’s future as a business location. He said: Meine Damen und Herren, wir können die Zukunft nicht dadurch sichern, daß wir unser Land als einen kollektiven Freizeitpark organisieren. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot secure the future by organizing our country as a collective leisure park.
In May 2025, shortly before his first government statement, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said: Wir müssen in diesem Land wieder mehr und vor allem effizienter arbeiten. Mit Vier-Tage-Woche und Work-Life-Balance werden wir den Wohlstand dieses Landes nicht erhalten können. We must work more again in this country, and above all more efficiently. With a four-day week and work-life balance, we will not be able to keep this country’s prosperity. Criticism came from other parties and from within his own. In February 2026, the CDU’s business wing brought a motion to the party congress with the title Kein Rechtsanspruch auf Lifestyle-Teilzeit, no legal right to lifestyle part-time. After protests, the term was dropped from the motion.
Work by Day, Guests in the Evening
Goethe wrote the ballad Der Schatzgräber, The Treasure Digger, in May 1797. A poor man tries to raise a treasure by magic at night. Instead, a boy appears and gives him other advice, and the poem ends with it: Tages Arbeit, abends Gäste! / Saure Wochen, frohe Feste! / Sei dein künftig / Zauberwort! Work by day, guests in the evening! Hard weeks, happy feasts! Let that be your magic word from now on.
Leisure and Worship
In September 1947, the philosopher Josef Pieper wrote a short book in three weeks. It appeared in Munich in 1948 as Muße und Kult, Leisure and Worship. Its first chapter takes up the theme Der Anspruch der totalen Arbeitswelt, the claim of the world of total work. Muße is a more elevated word for leisure than the everyday Freizeit, free time. The English edition of 1952 appeared as Leisure, the Basis of Culture, with an introduction by T. S. Eliot.
Weekend and Sunshine
On 22 August 1930, the Comedian Harmonists recorded Wochenend und Sonnenschein, Weekend and Sunshine, in Berlin. The tune was the American song Happy Days Are Here Again. The German text by Charles Amberg was a new song, not a translation. It became one of the group’s biggest hits and is still very well known. Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester recorded it again in 2002.