How to make the most of Germany's 2024 public holidays
By centering their time off around Germany's public holidays, here's how employees in Germany can enjoy up to 44 work-free days by using only 18 vacation days.
2024 is already looking good for public holidays in Germany: while previous years (here’s looking at you, 2022) have had a notoriously high number of national holidays which fall on the weekend, all bank holidays in the coming year fall smack dab in the week.
That gives employees even more chances to maximise their days off by combining these Feiertage (holidays) with their annual leave.
Note that all states have their own holidays on top of national ones, ranging from just one extra day off (like International Women’s Day on March 8th in Berlin) to several extra days, as tends to be the case in Catholic states like Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg with a handful of religious holidays.
All employees in Germany are entitled to at least 20 vacation days a year, according to the Federal Holidays Act. However, 25 days are the norm, with some larger companies offering 30 days or more of vacation.
We look at the main windows in which you can enjoy some work-free time, whether for a staycation or seaside retreat in a sunnier locale.
READ ALSO: Vacation days in Germany: What to know about your rights as an employee
Easter holidays
Over Germany’s Osterfeiern (Eastern holidays), you can take four days off to enjoy a 10-day long holiday - provided you don’t have to work Saturdays. Workers who take off April 2nd-5th can stay home starting from Good Friday (March 29th). Easter Monday falls on April 1st.
Three holidays and a lot of potential days off in May
In May, you can take 12 days off with six days of leave, thanks to two public holidays which fall on two consecutive weeks: Labour Day on Wednesday, May 1st and Ascension Day on Thursday, May 9th.
You can, in turn, request leave on May 2nd-3rd, May 6th-8th and May 10th, allowing you to take time off from May 1st through to the 12th.
For an extra four free days, plan on taking off Friday, May 17th to enjoy the weekend and Whit Monday, which falls on May 20th in 2024.
READ ALSO: How do Germany’s public holidays compare to other EU countries?
Photo: picture alliance/dpa/CosmosDirekt / Adobe Stock | CosmosDirekt
Autumn holidays
In October, using four vacation days means you can stay home for a total of nine days. Simply take September 30th, October 1st-2nd, and October 4th off. With German Unity Day falling on Thursday, October 3rd and two weekends, you can enjoy the maximum amount of time off.
If you’d like to head on holiday later in the month, every German state except Berlin and Hesse has a public holiday on either October 31st or November 1st.
Christmas holidays and New Year
In Germany, the low-key time between Christmas and January 1st is known as zwischen den Jahren, or "between the years". Many companies automatically close their doors during this period, but for those who don’t, it’s the norm for employees to take a couple of weeks off to spend with their families or just have some much-deserved downtime.
READ ALSO: German phrase of the day: Zwischen den Jahren
If employees take three days off during this time, they can receive nine days free: simply select December 23rd, 24th and 27th off, and stay home from Saturday, December 21st through December 29th.
Note that it’s a common practice for German companies to give employees the 24th off, also when it’s not an official Feiertag, so you may just need to take off two days.
If you also choose to take off December 30th and 31st, you can invest up to five days and stay home for 12.
Why you should take advantage of longer holiday blocks
If you have the choice, you will benefit from longer blocks of holiday at a time, says Dirk Windemuth, Director of the Institute for Work and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance (IAG), told German news outlet Focus Online.
"Two weeks of holiday at a stretch in a year should be a minimum, three weeks would be good," said Windemuth.
Recovery from work only sets in after a certain amount of time. As a rule, it takes at least two weeks to really switch off.
In addition, "after a longer break, the recovery effect lasts longer," says Windemuth. Shorter holidays also bring relaxation, but the recovery effect fizzles out more quickly afterwards.
Does my boss have to approve bridge days?
Not surprisingly, it’s a popular practice for employees to take time off on Brückentage - or the day in between when a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday. However, since most companies still need to be staffed during this time, employees can’t expect to have their time off requests all approved at once.
If you know in advance that you’d like time off on a bridge day, it pays off to make a request in advance.
However, whether and when employees can actually take leave depends on the situation in the company. If everyone wants to take leave at the same time, some companies even use a lottery system to decide who gets the time off.
READ ALSO: Brückentage, Fenstertag or Zwickeltag: All the German words for getting longer holidays
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2024 is already looking good for public holidays in Germany: while previous years (here’s looking at you, 2022) have had a notoriously high number of national holidays which fall on the weekend, all bank holidays in the coming year fall smack dab in the week.
That gives employees even more chances to maximise their days off by combining these Feiertage (holidays) with their annual leave.
Note that all states have their own holidays on top of national ones, ranging from just one extra day off (like International Women’s Day on March 8th in Berlin) to several extra days, as tends to be the case in Catholic states like Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg with a handful of religious holidays.
All employees in Germany are entitled to at least 20 vacation days a year, according to the Federal Holidays Act. However, 25 days are the norm, with some larger companies offering 30 days or more of vacation.
We look at the main windows in which you can enjoy some work-free time, whether for a staycation or seaside retreat in a sunnier locale.
READ ALSO: Vacation days in Germany: What to know about your rights as an employee
Easter holidays
Over Germany’s Osterfeiern (Eastern holidays), you can take four days off to enjoy a 10-day long holiday - provided you don’t have to work Saturdays. Workers who take off April 2nd-5th can stay home starting from Good Friday (March 29th). Easter Monday falls on April 1st.
Three holidays and a lot of potential days off in May
In May, you can take 12 days off with six days of leave, thanks to two public holidays which fall on two consecutive weeks: Labour Day on Wednesday, May 1st and Ascension Day on Thursday, May 9th.
You can, in turn, request leave on May 2nd-3rd, May 6th-8th and May 10th, allowing you to take time off from May 1st through to the 12th.
For an extra four free days, plan on taking off Friday, May 17th to enjoy the weekend and Whit Monday, which falls on May 20th in 2024.
READ ALSO: How do Germany’s public holidays compare to other EU countries?
Autumn holidays
In October, using four vacation days means you can stay home for a total of nine days. Simply take September 30th, October 1st-2nd, and October 4th off. With German Unity Day falling on Thursday, October 3rd and two weekends, you can enjoy the maximum amount of time off.
If you’d like to head on holiday later in the month, every German state except Berlin and Hesse has a public holiday on either October 31st or November 1st.
Christmas holidays and New Year
In Germany, the low-key time between Christmas and January 1st is known as zwischen den Jahren, or "between the years". Many companies automatically close their doors during this period, but for those who don’t, it’s the norm for employees to take a couple of weeks off to spend with their families or just have some much-deserved downtime.
READ ALSO: German phrase of the day: Zwischen den Jahren
If employees take three days off during this time, they can receive nine days free: simply select December 23rd, 24th and 27th off, and stay home from Saturday, December 21st through December 29th.
Note that it’s a common practice for German companies to give employees the 24th off, also when it’s not an official Feiertag, so you may just need to take off two days.
If you also choose to take off December 30th and 31st, you can invest up to five days and stay home for 12.
Why you should take advantage of longer holiday blocks
If you have the choice, you will benefit from longer blocks of holiday at a time, says Dirk Windemuth, Director of the Institute for Work and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance (IAG), told German news outlet Focus Online.
"Two weeks of holiday at a stretch in a year should be a minimum, three weeks would be good," said Windemuth.
Recovery from work only sets in after a certain amount of time. As a rule, it takes at least two weeks to really switch off.
In addition, "after a longer break, the recovery effect lasts longer," says Windemuth. Shorter holidays also bring relaxation, but the recovery effect fizzles out more quickly afterwards.
Does my boss have to approve bridge days?
Not surprisingly, it’s a popular practice for employees to take time off on Brückentage - or the day in between when a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday. However, since most companies still need to be staffed during this time, employees can’t expect to have their time off requests all approved at once.
If you know in advance that you’d like time off on a bridge day, it pays off to make a request in advance.
However, whether and when employees can actually take leave depends on the situation in the company. If everyone wants to take leave at the same time, some companies even use a lottery system to decide who gets the time off.
READ ALSO: Brückentage, Fenstertag or Zwickeltag: All the German words for getting longer holidays
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