German federal states in feud over school holiday slots

The old “harvest argument” about how school summer holiday periods are allocated to Germany’s 16 federal states has been reignited. Bavaria is unwilling to budge.

German states debate modernising school holiday slots

Germany’s 16 federal states have reentered an old argument about modernising the way school summer break periods are assigned to each state. At the heart of the matter is an accusation from 14 federal states that Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg hog the best slots.

The federal states operate on a staggered school summer holiday schedule to avoid overburdening the travel infrastructure and to prolong the period when local businesses can benefit from domestic tourism. The earliest summer holiday slots run from late June to early August, and the latest slots run from late July to mid-September.

Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg’s summer holidays run from late July or early August to mid-September, which is widely considered the best slot. Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg are the two federal states with the highest number of large farms, and the states are granted their holiday privilege on the basis that schoolchildren are required to help with the harvest.

Education Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Dorothee Feller (CDU) says the “harvest argument” is no longer relevant, “NRW would also enjoy having a later start to its holidays”. Along with education ministers in Lower Saxony and Thuringia, Feller has suggested that Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg join the other 14 federal states in rotating their holiday slots annually.

Söder says the school holidays are “in Bavarian DNA”

Bavaria’s Minister President Markus Söder (CSU) is not convinced. “We have our holiday rhythm, which is, so to speak, firmly in Bavarians' DNA,” Söder said in response to Feller’s proposal.

Bavarian Cultural Minister Anna Stolz (Freie Wähler) added that the federal state needs to keep the prime summer holiday spot because schoolchildren in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg also get a two-week holiday around Pentecost. 

With Pentecost falling between mid-May and mid-June, Bavaria would be at risk of having to merge the Pentecost and summer holidays if the state were assigned the early summer holiday slot in the annual, nationwide holiday rotation.

The German school holiday dates are renegotiated every five years and have now been scheduled until 2030. Feller will have to wait until then to make her case for modernisation again.