German Teachers' Union Calls for Summer Holidays Not to Start Before the First Weekend of July

Abitur Exam Deadlines

This year, the states of Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland are the first to start their summer holidays, with the start date set for June 29. In previous years, according to records cited by the Philologenverband, there have been starts as early as June 21, further reducing the time available to assess students.

For the future, the long-term holiday calendar foresees an even more extreme case: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is scheduled to start its holidays on June 18, 2029, a date that, if it occurs, would be one of the earliest recorded in the recent history of the German school calendar.

Earlier Dates on the Calendar

The central Abitur exams are held in mid-May, leaving only a few weeks until the earliest holidays begin. The Philologenverband maintains that this schedule cuts short the time teachers and students need to review content, prepare official documentation, and, especially, process the grading of final exams.

In Germany, summer holiday dates are staggered between late June and mid-September, a system designed to spread out the summer travel rush. Of the 16 federal states, 14 change their dates each year within a rotating scheme, so that, over the years, each state ends up being both the earliest and the latest in some season.

The Rotating System and Its Exceptions

The two exceptions are Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, which maintain their holidays stably in August and the first half of September and have never joined the rotation. Last year, the union and other stakeholders again called for both states to be integrated into the rotating system for a better distribution of school and tourist pressure.

However, the state governments of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg refused to join this scheme. Their refusal, according to the union organization, is one of the reasons why the rotating system does not completely prevent early holiday starts in other regions.

A Recurring Demand

The Philologenverband insisted that a general start to holidays from the first weekend of July would bring about "gerechtere Vergleichbarkeit zwischen den Ländern" (fairer comparability between the states) in Abitur preparation, by ensuring more homogeneous temporal conditions for the end of the school year.

Lin-Kitzing acknowledged that this is a recurring demand: the association has raised this complaint on previous occasions without any changes being made. Therefore, the head of the union has publicly renewed the request directed at the education ministries of the 16 federal states.