Who has summer vacation when – and why is arguing about it

Every damned summer happens: Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg are the last to start the big holidays. The rest of the Federal Republic has to rotate wildly. For example, this leads to Schleswig-Holstein’s vacation start this year at the end of July-but in 2028 on June 26th.

The resentment of the southern special regulation in federal holiday roulette has always been great. This year’s dispute opened North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister of Education Dorothee Feller (CDU). She called for the existing rules to change so that NRW could also benefit from later vacation.

Bavaria replied with the same as clear and expected: no. Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) said that the holiday rhythm was “firmly in the DNA” of Bavaria. A change is out of the question.

But other federal states also call for a different system. “Our school holiday regulation dates from another century,” said Thuringia’s CDU parliamentary group leader Andreas Bühl. The Hamburg SPD school senator Ksenija Bekeris argued similarly.

What are the arguments in the dispute? And is a compromise conceivable? Here are the most important questions and answers:

Summer vacation is not a trivial matter. Your current process will follow a decision that the Kultusministerkonferenz, KMK for short, took in 2021. After that, the 16 countries are divided into five groups that rotate annually to prevent “disadvantageous consequences for traffic and for the quarters’ demand in holiday areas”.

The KMK fixed the dates by 2030. For the time being, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria can insist on this. Here is the overview:

Beyond the Bavarian heritage, the Munich state government once referred to the harvest time: children and adolescents should help their rural parents in the fields. However, even Markus Söder saw that this argument no longer really draws. In the meantime, reference is made to the late Pentecost holidays.

In fact, the lessons only started again on June 23 for the Bavarian students. Of course, there would be little sense early summer vacation. The same applies to Baden-Württemberg.

In addition, it is actually a long tradition that can also be justified quantitatively: almost 25 million people live in the two southern countries. Hardly one politician will be able to convey that they should now break with their habit that has existed for many decades.

However, the quantitative argument can also be turned around: If Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg go on vacation together, highways and trains are constantly clogged.

Above all, it is about equal treatment. In addition to the Das-War-Eimmer-Sso-Dekret Söders and the Pentecost holidays that could be regulated differently, there is no factual justification for the obvious better treatment of the south.

It is very specific about money. In Bavaria, the summer vacation sometimes lasts until mid -September. This means that the families there can book guest houses, hotels or campsites every year in the price cheaper after -season. The others only if the rotation means well with them.

There are many suggestions. They range from a uniform holiday appointment, which most countries reject-up to a strict rotation principle that supports the most countries beyond Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.

The Education and Science Union (GEW) has been promoting a gentler rotary model for more than 50 years, in which the countries swing forward and back with their respective holidays as on a sine curve. In addition, there is a demand to relocate the holidays to August and especially September, also in response to climate change.

However, the current decision has a term until 2030. In addition, the principle of unanimity applies in the KMK. Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg therefore have veto law.

The holiday calendar is also important for those who have no school children. Because this is how the vacation can be booked around at least for the school -free period of the residents of the federal states.

So: Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia went on the summer vacation at the end of June. This was followed by Lower Saxony and Bremen, then Hessen, Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland came. North Rhine-Westphalia started last weekend.

This means that around half of the Republic is located during the summer vacation. The holidays in Berlin, Brandenburg and Hamburg begin on July 24th, the rest, including Baden-Württemberg. Bavaria then school free from August 1 to mid -September.

And for everyone who wants to look closely before the booking, here is the associated graphic: