The Reiseanalyse, the annual study of German holiday travel, counts trips of five days or more as holiday trips. In 2024 it counted 68 million of them. On average they lasted 13.0 days. That was almost as long as in 2023, and longer than in 2022, at 12.6 days, or 2019, at 12.4 days. The study also counted 94 million short trips of two to four days.
Short trips now outnumber holiday trips, but the average holiday trip still lasts about two weeks.
In Friedrich Schiller’s Das Lied von der Glocke (The Song of the Bell, written in 1799 and first printed for the year 1800), the bell has been cast and the metal must cool. The work stops for the evening: Bis die Glocke sich verkühlet, / Laßt die strenge Arbeit ruhn, / Wie im Laub der Vogel spielet, / Mag sich jeder gütlich tun. / Winkt der Sterne Licht, / Ledig aller Pflicht / Hört der Pursch die Vesper schlagen, / Meister muß sich immer plagen. Until the bell has cooled, let the hard work rest. As the bird plays in the leaves, each one may take his ease. When the starlight beckons, free of all duty, the young journeyman hears the evening bell. The master must always toil.
Feierabend is the end of the working day. Duden also records the word in a wider sense. Für mich ist Feierabend means that the speaker cannot or will not go on, and that for him the matter is over. Damit ist bei mir Feierabend means that a matter is closed and done. In everyday speech, Jetzt ist aber Feierabend! means that is enough now. A phrase from mining says the same thing. Schicht im Schacht, literally shift in the shaft, means that something has come to an end.
On 21 January 2021, the European Parliament adopted a report calling for a right to disconnect from work. On its website, the German employers’ federation BDA reported that European employers rejected the need for a special right to disconnect. The text argues: Schon heute müssen keine Mitarbeiter immer und ununterbrochen für seinen Arbeitgeber erreichbar sein. Even today, no employee has to be reachable by the employer at all times and without interruption. The BDA’s article warned against forcing ein starres Korsett, a rigid corset, on companies.
Feierabend is the free time after the working day, and also the end of work itself. Duden gives Feierabend machen, to stop work for the day, and nach Feierabend, after work. The word is old. Duden traces it to late Middle High German vīrabent, the eve of a holiday. Only later was it reinterpreted through the verb feiern, to celebrate. The evening after every working day now carries the name once given to the evening before a holiday.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.