Berlin’s shop-opening law once allowed stores to open on all four Sundays in Advent. The Protestant church of Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz and the Catholic Archdiocese of Berlin challenged it at the Federal Constitutional Court. On 1 December 2009, the court ruled that the Advent Sunday rule did not agree with the constitutional guarantee of rest on Sundays and public holidays. Rest is the rule, and opening is the exception. The sales interests of shop owners and the everyday shopping interests of customers are not enough to justify opening. The rule remained valid only until 31 December 2009.
Not on Good Friday
The FSK, the film industry’s voluntary self-regulation body, does more than set age ratings. It also decides whether a film may be shown in public on silent holidays such as Good Friday. The film must suit the serious character of the day. The rule dates from 1952. According to the Berliner Zeitung, the list of films without this release had 756 titles in 2016. Among them are Heidi, Das Leben des Brian (Life of Brian), Max und Moritz and Ghostbusters.
The list now grows only slowly. According to the FSK, more than half of all films lacked the holiday release from the 1950s to the 1970s, but 1 percent or less since 2000. The FSK has called the restriction kaum noch nachvollziehbar, hardly understandable anymore. It applies only to cinemas, not to television or streaming.
The Silent Days
In Bavaria, Good Friday is one of the stille Tage, the silent days, under the state holiday law. On Good Friday, sports events are banned, and so is music of any kind in places that serve drinks. In 2007 the freethinkers’ association Bund für Geistesfreiheit planned a Heidenspaß-Party, a heathens’ fun party, in a Munich theater on Good Friday. The city banned it. The case went to the Federal Constitutional Court. In a decision of 27 October 2016, published in November, the court found the protection of the silent days constitutional in principle. The protection, it said, creates lediglich einen äußeren Ruherahmen, only an outer frame of quiet. The law must, however, allow exceptions for events protected by freedom of belief or assembly.
Free Sundays by Law
Where Sunday work is allowed in Germany, the law still protects a minimum. Under Section 11 of the Working Hours Act, at least 15 Sundays a year must remain free of work. An employee who works on a Sunday must get a replacement day of rest within two weeks. For young workers the rule is stricter. The Youth Employment Protection Act says: An Sonntagen dürfen Jugendliche nicht beschäftigt werden. Young people may not be employed on Sundays. Where exceptions apply, at least two Sundays a month must stay free. The act also says: Am 24. und 31. Dezember nach 14 Uhr und an gesetzlichen Feiertagen dürfen Jugendliche nicht beschäftigt werden. On 24 and 31 December after 2 p.m. and on public holidays, young people may not be employed.
No Trucks on Sunday
On Sundays and public holidays, from midnight to 10 p.m., trucks over 7.5 tonnes may not be driven in Germany to carry goods commercially. The ban also covers empty runs, and trailers behind trucks. It is set in Section 30 of the Road Traffic Regulations. Some holidays count only in the states that observe them. Corpus Christi, for example, counts only in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.
No Lawn Mowing on Sunday
A federal noise regulation, the Geräte- und Maschinenlärmschutzverordnung, sets quiet times for machines used outdoors. In residential areas, the machines it lists may not be run at all on Sundays and public holidays, and not between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. on weekdays. The list includes lawn mowers and leaf blowers. It also includes bottle banks, so the glass containers in residential areas may not be used on Sundays. Some of the loudest garden machines, such as leaf blowers, are also restricted on weekday mornings, at midday and in the early evening, unless they carry the EU eco-label. The midday rest, the Mittagsruhe, is not set in federal or state law. It is set, if at all, in leases, house rules or local bylaws.
Duty Is Duty
Dienst ist Dienst, und Schnaps ist Schnaps. — Duty is duty, and schnapps is schnapps. The dictionary DWDS explains: duty and pleasure must be strictly kept apart.
Feierabend machen — to make the evening of rest. Duden: to stop the day’s work.
nach Feierabend — after the end of the working day, in one’s free time
Leave Cannot Be Recalled
Once an employer in Germany has granted an employee statutory leave, it cannot call the employee back from it. The Federal Labor Court ruled so on 20 June 2000. Even an agreement that allows the employer to recall the employee is void, because it violates the mandatory law on leave.
Saturdays Daddy Belongs to Me
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.
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.