German Public Holidays by State and Working Days

The nine holidays in every state

Nine days are public holidays in every state. Only one of them is governed by federal law: "3 October is a public holiday as the Day of German Unity" (Art. 2(2) Unification Treaty). The other eight are listed in the holiday acts of all 16 states.

Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day and Whit Monday depend on the date of Easter: Good Friday is 2 days before Easter Sunday, Easter Monday 1 day after, Ascension Day 39 days after and Whit Monday 50 days after. We compute the date of Easter with Gauss's Easter formula.

Holidays and working days per state

On top of the nine common holidays, each state may add its own. The table shows the statewide holidays and the Monday-to-Friday working days after deducting holidays that fall on a weekday.

Calculated with our public holidays and working days calculators from the state holiday acts (sources below; for Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, the respective state act as amended). Regional holidays and annual leave are not deducted. Easter Sunday and Whit Sunday in Brandenburg always fall on a Sunday and do not change the working days.

Holidays that apply only in some municipalities

Some holidays apply only in certain municipalities rather than the whole state. Our calculators show them separately as "regional" and deduct them from working days only if you choose to.

• Assumption Day (15 August) in Bavaria: only in municipalities with a predominantly Catholic population, as determined by the state statistics office (Art. 1(1) and (3) Bavarian Public Holidays Act). In Saarland the day is a statewide holiday.
• Augsburg Peace Festival (8 August): only within the city of Augsburg (Art. 1(2) Bavarian Public Holidays Act).
• Corpus Christi in Saxony: only in the municipalities named in the Saxon Corpus Christi ordinance (parts of the former districts of Bautzen, Hoyerswerda and Kamenz).
• Corpus Christi in Thuringia: only in municipalities with a predominantly Catholic population designated by ordinance (section 2(2) Thuringian Public Holidays Act).

Counting working days correctly

Under German law, Werktage (business days) are all calendar days that are not Sundays or public holidays, so Saturday is included (section 3(2) Federal Leave Act, BUrlG). Working days are the days you work under your contract – usually Monday to Friday. To count them for a period:

1. Count every day in the period on which you are scheduled to work (with a five-day week: Monday to Friday).
2. Subtract the public holidays at your place of work that fall on one of those days.
3. Subtract days of annual leave if you want to know the remaining working days.

A holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday does not reduce the Monday-to-Friday working days. That is why the number of working days varies from year to year while the number of holidays stays the same.

What a public holiday means at work

• No work: employees may not be employed on Sundays and public holidays from midnight to midnight (section 9(1) Working Hours Act, ArbZG). Exceptions apply to emergency services, hospitals, restaurants and transport companies, among others (section 10 ArbZG).
• Compensatory rest day: anyone who works on a public holiday falling on a weekday gets a compensatory day off within eight weeks (section 11(3) ArbZG).
• Pay: for working time lost because of a public holiday, the employer pays the wages that would have been paid without the loss (section 2(1) EntgFG).
• Exception: anyone absent without excuse on the last working day before or the first working day after the holiday has no right to be paid for the holiday (section 2(3) EntgFG).
• Deadlines: if a deadline ends on a Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday recognised at the place of declaration or performance, the next working day takes its place (section 193 German Civil Code, BGB).

Frequently asked questions