Public holidays in Germany 2026 and 2027, state by state

The 9 national holidays in 2026 and 2027

These apply everywhere in Germany. Shops, offices and most services close; public transport runs on a Sunday timetable.

Easter, Ascension, Whit Monday and Corpus Christi move every year because they are counted from Easter Sunday (5 April 2026, 28 March 2027). Ascension is always a Thursday, 39 days after Easter, which is why it creates the most popular bridge day of the year.

State holidays: which extra days your Bundesland gets

The rest of the calendar depends on the state where you work, not where you live. The German Trade Union Confederation keeps an official-source overview of every state holiday. A commuter living in Hesse and working in Bavaria gets the Bavarian holidays at work.

Brandenburg also lists Easter Sunday and Whit Sunday as public holidays. They always fall on a Sunday anyway, so they only matter for Sunday-work premiums.

How many holidays each state has

The north gets the fewest days off. Hamburg, Bremen, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein only moved from 9 to 10 in 2018, when they adopted Reformation Day as a permanent holiday.

2027 is a bad year: holidays lost to weekends

Germany has no substitute days. A holiday on a Saturday or Sunday is simply gone, with no extra day off on the Monday, unlike in the UK or the US.

• 2026: 3 October (Saturday) and Boxing Day (Saturday) are lost nationally. Reformation Day falls on a Saturday and All Saints' on a Sunday, so the north and the south-west each lose one more.
• 2027: four national holidays land on a weekend: 1 May (Saturday), 3 October (Sunday), and both Christmas days (Saturday and Sunday). Reformation Day and Assumption also fall on a Sunday. A Hamburg employee gets only 5 weekday holidays in 2027: New Year, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension and Whit Monday.

If you are planning leave for 2027, this matters: the Christmas break costs more vacation days than usual, because 24 and 31 December are not holidays and 25 and 26 December bring no free weekday.

Bridge days (Brückentage) to plan around

A Brückentag is a working day squeezed between a holiday and a weekend. Taking it off turns one vacation day into a four-day weekend. Colleagues book them early, so request them as soon as the new year's leave planning opens.

In 2027, Women's Day (Berlin, MV), Children's Day (Thuringia) and All Saints' Day (BW, BY, NW, RP, SL) fall on Mondays, which gives those states long weekends without taking leave.

Holidays do not count against your paid leave. The legal minimum is 24 working days on a six-day week, which is 20 days on a normal five-day week; most full-time contracts give 25-30. See Employee rights in Germany for the full leave rules.

Planning a long weekend abroad

Four-day weekends are when Germany empties toward Prague, Amsterdam, Copenhagen or the Alps. Trains sell out: book long-distance tickets as soon as sales open, and remember the Deutschlandticket covers regional trains only, not ICE or IC. Our Deutsche Bahn guide covers Sparpreis fares and seat reservations.

Inside the EU and EEA, your German SIM roams at domestic prices. Outside it, such as Switzerland, Turkey or anywhere further, roaming is charged extra and can get expensive fast; whether the UK is still included depends on your provider, so check before you go. That is where a travel eSIM earns its place.

What is open on a public holiday

Public holidays follow the same rules as Sundays: shops, supermarkets and most businesses are closed by law. Plan your shopping for the day before, and expect supermarkets to be crowded then. The full rules are in Sundays and quiet hours.

• Open: restaurants, cafés, museums, cinemas, petrol stations, and shops inside major railway stations and airports.
• Often open for a few hours: bakeries in the morning, depending on the state.
• Closed: supermarkets, Bürgerämter and all public offices, banks, post office counters, most pharmacies (one emergency pharmacy per area stays open).
• Public transport: Sunday or holiday timetable.

Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are not public holidays. They are normal working days unless your contract or employer says otherwise, although most offices close early. Shops close by 14:00 on 24 December in most states, and many employers give the afternoon off.

Good Friday is a "silent holiday" (stiller Feiertag). In most states, public dance events and loud entertainment are banned for all or part of the day. Clubs close, and some cinemas restrict what they show. Several other days carry lighter restrictions, including All Saints' Day, Remembrance Sunday (Volkstrauertag) and the Sunday of the Dead (Totensonntag).

Carnival is not a public holiday. Rosenmontag in Cologne, Düsseldorf or Mainz is a normal working day by law, but many local employers close anyway. Ask before assuming.

Working on a public holiday: pay and rules

Sunday and holiday work is only allowed in sectors that need it, such as hospitals, hospitality, transport, energy and security. If you work in one:

• Paid time: when a holiday falls on a regular workday, you are paid as if you had worked (Entgeltfortzahlung). Mini-jobbers are included.
• Premiums: there is no general legal right to a holiday premium. It comes from your contract or collective agreement, but the tax system rewards it. Holiday premiums are tax-free up to 125% of your base wage, and up to 150% on 1 May, 25 and 26 December and from 14:00 on 24 December. Sunday premiums are tax-free up to 50%. The tax-free part is calculated on a base wage of at most €50 an hour (§3b EStG).
• Compensation day: under the Working Hours Act, anyone who works on a holiday that falls on a weekday gets a replacement day off within eight weeks.

School holidays are a different system

Public holidays are set by law; school holidays (Schulferien) are set by each state and staggered so that not all of Germany travels at once. Summer holidays rotate between states every year, which is why flight and rental prices depend on your state's dates. The official dates for every state are published by the Kultusministerkonferenz. For childcare during holidays and how schools work, see Schools in Germany for expat families.

Frequently asked questions