Majority in Germany against relaxing Sunday opening hours

Nearly 60 percent of people in Germany are opposed to relaxing the country’s strict policy on Sunday opening hours, according to a recent representative survey.

59 percent oppose German shops opening on Sunday

A survey of 2.006 people conducted by YouGov on behalf of the dpa has found that 59 percent of people in Germany are opposed to allowing shops to open on Sundays more regularly.

34 percent of respondents said that they would be in favour of allowing retailers to open more regularly on a Sunday. The remaining respondents were undecided or didn’t give an opinion.

German supermarkets, as well as clothes shops, bookshops and pharmacies, are all closed on Sundays. Sunday is a “quiet day” in Germany, and a law adopted in 1950 prohibits shops from opening so people can enjoy recreational activities and time with family and friends. Restaurants, cafes, bars, museums and cinemas remain open.

“Verkaufsoffene Sontage” (shopping Sundays) remain the exception but are becoming more common, especially in the lead up to Christmas. In 2024, there were just four shopping Sundays in Berlin, but Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) has announced a plan to double the number of days.

In the YouGov survey, 54 percent agreed that opening the shops more regularly on Sundays would not benefit the economy, and a quarter said they spend more money on Sundays than on a weekday.

Unstaffed markets find loophole in Germany’s retail law

Of the 34 percent of survey respondents who said they were in favour of relaxing Germany’s Sunday shopping rules, two-thirds said their motivation was being able to shop in a more flexible and spontaneous way. 42 percent said they have too little time to shop during the week and 37 percent said they would like to shop recreationally on Sundays.

Recently, semi-automated shops have been spreading rapidly across Germany. According to a study by Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW), a new one is opening almost every day.

Semi-automated shops tend to be small and sell basic amenities, similar to a petrol station. Although there is no one serving customers at the till, employees must still be present to stock shelves.

So far, four federal states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Hesse, Saxony-Anhalt, and Bavaria, have relaxed their Sunday shopping laws so that semi-automated shops can open legally. Baden-Württemberg also plans to make the change.

Churches and trade unions are among the most prominent critics of the law change for semi-automated shops, and of opening shops on Sunday in general. A church coalition in Bavaria, Allianz für den freien Sonntag (Alliance for free Sundays), recently announced that it would challenge the federal state's new, relaxed regulations for semi-automated shops.