The Days Germany Closes and Why It Depends on the State

The Days Germany Closes and Why it Depends on the State

You land in Munich on 1 November expecting a normal day. Every supermarket, bank, and post office is locked. The reason: All Saints' Day is a public holiday in Bavaria but not in Berlin. Germany does not have one uniform holiday calendar. The 16 federal states each decide which regional days to observe. The split follows a clear religious and historical line. Nine holidays apply nationwide. Another nine apply only in specific states, mostly in the Catholic south or the Protestant north. Knowing which ones shut what, and where, is the difference between a smooth trip and a Sunday in a ghost town.

Nationwide holidays include fixed dates and moveable Christian feasts. The fixed dates: New Year's Day (1 January), Labour Day (1 May), German Unity Day (3 October), Christmas Day (25 December), and Boxing Day (26 December). The moveable ones follow Easter: Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day (39 days after Easter Sunday), and Whit Monday (50 days after Easter Sunday). On all of these, government offices, banks, post offices, supermarkets, and most retail stores close. Petrol stations stay open. Pharmacies run an emergency rota. Restaurants and museums stay open. Public transport runs on a reduced Sunday schedule.

Which Holidays Change by State

Epiphany (6 January) is a public holiday in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, and Saxony-Anhalt. Corpus Christi (60 days after Easter Sunday) is observed in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and parts of Saxony and Thuringia. Assumption Day (15 August) applies only in Saarland and parts of Bavaria. All Saints' Day (1 November) closes shops in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland. Reformation Day (31 October) is the northern counterpart: a holiday in Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia. Saxony adds its own: the Day of Repentance and Prayer, the Wednesday before 23 November. Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern observe International Women's Day (8 March). Thuringia observes World Children's Day (20 September).

How This Affects Your Travel Plans

Shop the Day Before or Go Without

If you are in Bavaria on 1 November, buy groceries on 31 October. If you are in Hamburg on 31 October, do the same. On any public holiday, retail shuts. Museums and restaurants stay open, but check individual websites. Public transport runs a Sunday timetable. Fewer trains. Longer waits. This hits regional lines hardest.

Bridging Days and Motorway Gridlock

When a public holiday falls on a Thursday or Tuesday, many Germans take the Friday or Monday off to create a long weekend. These bridging days (Brückentage) produce the worst traffic of the year. Ascension Day (Thursday) and Whit Monday are notorious. On the Friday after Ascension, the A8 between Stuttgart and Munich, the A3 from Frankfurt to Cologne, and the A7 through Lower Saxony turn into parking lots. Avoid these corridors on Friday afternoon and Sunday evening. On trains, book a seat reservation on any ICE route on those days. The trains are full, not just busy.

School Holidays Compound the Crowds

Each state sets its own school holidays in six blocks: winter, Easter, Whitsun, summer, autumn, and Christmas. The 16 calendars are staggered to reduce congestion, but summer holidays (six weeks, rotating between late June and early September) still push prices up and fill campsites, hotels, and train compartments. Christmas holidays run roughly two weeks across all states. Easter holidays range from one to three weeks depending on the state. The Kultusministerkonferenz publishes the multi-year calendar four to five years in advance. Check it before booking flights if you want to avoid the highest accommodation rates.

What Stays Open and What Does Not

The Closure List

On any public holiday, assume these are closed: supermarkets, department stores, shopping centres, banks, post offices, and government offices. Petrol stations remain open. Pharmacies operate an emergency rota posted in every pharmacy window. Bakeries open for morning hours. Restaurants and museums stay open, though museums may reduce hours or switch to a holiday schedule. Public transport runs a Sunday timetable. Fewer departures. Check the DB Navigator app or the local transport authority's schedule the night before. In cities like Berlin and Munich, U-Bahn and S-Bahn still run but less frequently. In rural areas, buses may stop entirely.

One exception: train station shops (Reisezentrum and supermarkets inside major train stations) open on public holidays, especially in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, and Hamburg. They charge more but save you if you forgot to shop. Do not count on them in smaller towns.

The Cash Trap on Holiday Weekends

Cash is still mandatory in many restaurants, bakeries, and smaller shops. On a public holiday, banks are closed and ATMs may not be refilled until the next working day. Running out of cash becomes a real problem. Withdraw cash on the day before the holiday. ATMs at train stations and airports are more reliable than standalone machines in residential areas. If you are in a rural area on a holiday and your card is refused, you have no fallback. Plan for it.

The One Thing That Trips Up Travellers Most

The most common mistake is assuming that a public holiday in one part of Germany applies everywhere. You plan a drive from Berlin to Munich over the first weekend of November, expecting shops to be open in both cities on Saturday. They are open in Berlin. They are closed in Munich because All Saints' Day is observed in Bavaria and many retailers extend the closure to Saturday. You arrive with no food, no cash from a machine that was not refilled, and a restaurant that only takes cash. The failure case is standing outside a locked supermarket in a Bavarian village at 14:00 on a Saturday with a dwindling fuel gauge and no ATM within walking distance. That is the day you learn that Germany public holidays by state are not a trivia question. They are the operating system of the country, and you ignored the update.