Why do not all school children in Germany have summer vacation at the same time?
About 11.4 million minors visit school in Germany. If they and their families go on leave at the same time, the results will have even more large -scale traffic jams on highways, congested trains and overbook hotels.
Therefore, each of the 16 German federal federal states begins its summer vacation at a different time. In 2025, the six -week holiday period for Saxony began in late June, where it would not begin August for Bavaria.
The summer vacation period which is stagnant is in the interests of the tourism industry. Hotels, beaches and amusement parks can be equally visited in several months.
Who decides when a federal state goes on leave?
Education in Germany is a case for individual states, not the federal government in Berlin. So less sexual, Bavaria, Thuryringia, Hayes and other federal states are free to decide when to set your holidays.
16 Federal states education ministers coordinate with each OAach at the permanent conference of the Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs, already determined the dates of the holiday. For more than 50 years, they have tried to accommodate all the interests.
The idea is that all states should have almost the same length to summer and winter semester, allowing students to have enough time to appear in the exam before the summer vacation, as well as for tour days and projects.
So why are there still arguments every year?
Want to do the best dates due to the federal state. This is: not only the time for the exam, but because the residents get as much sun as possible and reach the cheap and hotel.
Since the thesis is difficult to come in mid -July compared to the end of August, the later holiday dates are particularly popular. The weather is likely to be more pleasant, and people can therefore take advantage of the beginning of low weather.
The two states do not want to be particularly optional: Bavaria and Baden-Vortembourg in Southern Germany. Both insist on being the last state to go on holiday in summer.
He used to justify it by saying that school children in the agriculture sector had to help with the crop. Now, they say that their white Sunday holidays are late.
Is there any solution in sight?
not yet. For years, representatives from other federal states have called Bavaria and Baden-Vurtembberg to cooperate. Dorothy Feller, Minister of Education Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, said in an interview West german allgeemine zitung That NRW “would like to start for holidays later.”
Year to year, Bavaria and Baden-Vurtemberg blocks all attested by other states to replace the system. “We have our holiday,” said the state premiere Marcus Soder of the Orthodox Christian Social Union.
Even if both the states had to be given, the change will come in five years as soon as possible, as all the holiday dates are fixed till then.
Does the problem present in another country?
Germany is not the only country in which different starts and ends for holidays in the region. In the Netherlands, there are three regions with separate holidays. However, thesis is determined by the Ministry of National Education and is no more than two weeks.
France has a shocking start for some holidays, but not a long summer vacation. In other countries, such as the UK, discusses a rolling system for a long time.
The annual dispute between North and South when the school’s summer holidays should begin, it seems a purely German ritual.
This article was original in German.
