German municipalities publish a waste calendar, the Abfallkalender, for each year. The Regensburg calendar for 2026 explains how to use it. Look up your street, note the district numbers for residual waste, paper and recycling, and read the dates off the monthly pages. A changed collection day is marked with the letter Ä. The bins must be out by 6 a.m. on collection day and no more than 24 hours before. Residual waste bins may stand no more than 10 meters from the truck’s regular stopping place. Fulda’s waste information for 2026 lists, holiday by holiday, which collection of residual and organic waste moves to which day.
Daycare Before Birth
Since 2013, every child in Germany aged one or older has had a legal right to a place in daycare. Stiftung Warentest still advises parents to register their need with the youth welfare office and to visit daycare centers sogar schon vor der Geburt, even before the birth. A pregnancy checklist in the magazine Apotheken Umschau Eltern tells parents to find out how places are allocated in their state. The same list warns that midwives are often booked out long in advance. A partner who wants parental leave from the day of birth must notify the employer at least seven weeks before the due date.
Summer Holidays Fixed Years Ahead
On 13 December 2021, the conference of education ministers fixed the start and end of the summer holidays in all 16 states for the years 2025 to 2030. Five groups of states rotate, so that the holidays are staggered across the country. The reasons given included Planungssicherheit, planning certainty, for schools, families and tourism. In this system, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg come last, because of their Pentecost holidays. By August 2026, negotiations on the dates from 2031 were under way. Several states want to end the special position of the two southern states. Bavaria’s premier Markus Söder replied: Auf keinen Fall. Wir ändern die Ferien nicht. (No way. We are not changing the holidays.)
The Time Study
On 30 September 1924, the Reichsausschuß für Arbeitszeitermittlung, the Reich Committee for Determining Working Time, was founded. It is known by its initials, REFA. Its early task was to measure working time for cost calculations and for piece-rate work. REFA trained Zeitnehmer, time takers. By 1929 REFA had trained 1,650 time takers, and by 1943 about 12,000. The association still exists and still trains people in work-time study.
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.
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.
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.
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.