07/16/2025July 16, 2025
German states push for fairer summer break rotation as Bavaria digs in
Calls for a shake-up of Germany’s summer holiday timetable are growing louder, as more states push for an end to what they see as an unfair advantage for Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg — the only two states that always start their school break last.
While most of Germany’s states rotate their summer holiday slots each year to ease travel chaos and spread demand for holiday accommodation, the two southern states keep their late break thanks to their traditional Catholic Pentecost holidays.
The Standing Conference of State Ministers of Education says the special rule ensures enough learning and exam time between Pentecost and the summer break.
But critics argue that families in other states are stuck with peak season prices and packed roads, while parents in the south can avoid the rush by taking advantage of the early summer Pentecost period.
“This rigid system is no longer fair,” said the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia’s Education Minister Dorothee Feller.
Rhineland-Palatinate’s Education Minister Sven Teuber echoed her call, telling the German newspaper Bild: “Summer holidays are not a privilege for a few states. We need constructive solutions, including from those that have shown little flexibility so far.”
“State uprising against extra sausage for Bavaria,” was the newspaper’s online headline, using a German term for preferential treatment.
Germany’s holiday calendar is based on the 1964 Hamburg Agreement, which fixes the total number of school holiday days at 75 per year and sets a framework for when the summer break can start — depending on Easter and Pentecost dates.
Bavaria’s Premier Markus Söder of the Christian Social Union (CSU) dismissed the calls for change. “We have our holiday rhythm — it’s part of Bavaria’s DNA,” he said. Baden-Württemberg also shows no sign of budging, despite occasional grumbling that its late break sometimes brings chilly, autumn-like weather by early September.
