In January 2020 the president of the German retail association HDE called for a change to the Basic Law to make Sunday opening easier. The services union ver.di answered: Wir lehnen eine Grundgesetzänderung strikt ab. We strictly reject a change to the Basic Law. A spokesman for the Catholic bishops said that the alternation of work and rest belongs to human life. In July 2026 the e-commerce association bevh, the HDE and the chambers of commerce, DIHK, pressed again for more Sunday opening. In a representative YouGov poll, 43 percent favored more frequent Sunday opening and 50 percent were against. About a year earlier, 34 percent had been in favor and 59 percent against. For ver.di, Sunday is der einzige verlässlich planbare freie Tag, the only free day that can be reliably planned.
Nobody Has to Be Reachable
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.
The Eve of a Holiday
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.
After Totensonntag
Totensonntag, the Sunday of the Dead, is the Protestant day of remembrance for the dead. Under the holiday laws it is a stiller Feiertag, a silent holiday, everywhere except Hamburg. The Protestant churches ask that Christmas markets open only after this day. The Bavarian Protestant church said in 2017: Darum plädieren wir dafür, die Weihnachtsmärkte erst nach dem Totensonntag zu beginnen. That is why we argue that the Christmas markets should begin only after Totensonntag. That year, however, markets in Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen, Munich, Lindau and Hamburg opened earlier. A church spokesperson in the Rhineland called this ein Ärgernis, an annoyance.
Sunday Opening Needs a Reason
Two rulings of the Federal Administrative Court show how narrow the exceptions to Sunday rest are. In 2014 the services union ver.di and two Protestant deaneries challenged a Hessian regulation that allowed Sunday work in certain businesses. The court struck down the exceptions for video stores, public libraries, lottery companies and call centers. Films and books, the court reasoned, can be borrowed on weekdays. In 2015 the court ruled on a shopping Sunday in Eching in Bavaria, held together with a spring market. The market, not the shops, must shape the public character of the day. The shop opening may only be an annex to it. Das bloß wirtschaftliche Umsatzinteresse, the mere commercial interest in sales, is not a reason. The local ordinance was invalid.
Advent Sundays in Berlin
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.