Holidays in the GDR
The holidays in the German Democratic Republic have been celebrated uniformly throughout the national territory since 1967.
By 1966, there were 14 public holidays in almost all areas of the country. In connection with the introduction of the “five-day week”, five public holidays were deleted in 1966/67, so that - with two exceptions in 1975 and 1985 - there were nine annual public holidays in the entire country until the fall of the Wall. With the abolition of Reformation Day, which was not celebrated in all parts of the country, a distinction was no longer made, as is the case today in Germany, between national holidays ( e.g. Ascension Day , Day of German Unity ) and regionally limited ( e.g. Corpus Christi , Penance and Prayer Day ) holidays.
Legal holidays
Overview
Statutory, non-working holidays in the GDR were:
holiday | date | comment |
---|---|---|
New Year | January 1st | |
Good Friday | 2 days before Easter Sunday | |
Easter Sunday | see Easter date | |
Easter Monday | 1 day after Easter Sunday | until 1967 and 1990 |
International struggle and holiday of the working people for peace and socialism | 1st of May | |
Liberation Day | 8th of May | until 1967 and 1985 |
day of the victory | May 9 | only 1975 |
Ascension of Christ | 39 days after Easter Sunday | until 1967 and 1990 |
Pentecost Sunday | 49 days after Easter Sunday | |
Whit Monday | 50 days after Easter Sunday | |
day of the Republic | October 7th | |
Reformation day | October 31 | until 1966 (not in the districts of Halle and Magdeburg or in Berlin (East) ) |
Day of Prayer and Repentance | Wednesday before November 23rd | until 1966 |
1st Christmas Day | 25 December | |
2nd Christmas Day | December 26th |
development
On the basis of the provisions of the Seventh Party Congress of the SED (April 17-22, 1967), five public holidays were deleted in connection with the introduction of the “five-day week”.
Since the ordinance came into force on August 28, 1967, 1967 Reformation Day and Day of Repentance and Prayer were no longer public holidays. The ordinance also stipulated that the working hours on Good Friday and Whit Monday had to be made up on the Saturday after Easter or Whitsun. This regulation was lifted a few years later. The free afternoons on December 24th ( Christmas Eve ) and December 31st ( New Year's Eve ) had to be worked on on a Saturday at the beginning of December or offset by a day off.
After the political change in the GDR in 1989, the canceled public holidays (except for the day of liberation) were reintroduced shortly before Easter 1990; Easter Monday and Ascension Day were legally non-working holidays in the last few months of the GDR . The Reformation Day , which was also reintroduced, remained GDR law and thus a public holiday in the states of Brandenburg , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt and in accordance with Annex II, Chapter VIII, Section C - Social Work Safety, Section III, Item 3 until the state regulations come into force Thuringia .
Honor and memorial days
- Sunday closest to January 15 - Memorial Day in honor of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg (murdered January 15, 1919)
- 2nd Sunday in February - Post and Telecommunication Workers Day
- February 8th - Day of the Ministry for State Security (MfS)
- February 11th - Civil Defense Day
- February 15, 1958 - Foundation of the CIMA, international committee of the children and youth movement at the WBDJ
- 3rd Sunday in February - day of the trade employees
- March 1 - National People's Army Day
- March 7th - the day the Free German Youth was founded
- March 8th - International Women's Day
- March 17th - World Shipping Day
- March 21 - International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
- March 23rd - World Meteorology Day
- March 27th - World Theater Day
- April 7th - World Health Day
- 2nd Sunday of April - Metalworker's Day
- April 12th - International Aerospace Day, Young Technicians and Naturalists Day
- April 18 - International Monuments Day
- April 21 - the day the Socialist Unity Party of Germany was founded
- April 23rd - World Book Day
- April 24th - International Day of Youth and Students against Colonialism and for Peaceful Coexistence
- Last Sunday in April - World Day of Twin Cities
- May 1st - International Day of Struggle and Workers' Day
- May 8th - anniversary of liberation from Hitler's fascism ; World Red Cross Day
- May 9 - the day of the victory of the peoples of the USSR over Hitler fascism
- May 10 - Free Book Day in memory of the 1933 book burning in Germany
- May 17th - World Telecommunication Day
- May 18 - International Museum Day
- Friday before Pentecost - day of the youth brigades since 1978
- June 1st - International Children's Day
- June 5th - World Environment Day
- June 12th - Teacher's Day
- 2nd Sunday in June - Railway Worker's Day; Day of the working people in the transport sector
- June 16 - International Day of Solidarity with the Struggle of the People of South Africa - " Soweto Day "
- 3. Saturday in June - Water Workers Day
- 3rd Sunday in June - day of the cooperative farmers and workers of socialist agriculture and forestry
- June 22, 1941 - start of the " Great Patriotic War " of the USSR after the invasion of the German Wehrmacht
- 4th Sunday of June - Construction Worker's Day
- July 1st - Day of the German People's Police
- 1st Sunday of July - Miner's Day and Energy Worker Day
- July 18 - International Brigades Day
- August 2, 1945 - Signing of the Potsdam Agreement by the USSR, USA and Great Britain
- Aug. 07, 1952 - Foundation of the Society for Sport and Technology
- September 1st - World Day of Peace
- September 8th - World Literacy Day
- 2nd Sunday in September - International Day of Remembrance for Victims of Fascist Terror and Day of Struggle against Fascism and Imperialist War. See also victims of fascism
- 3. Saturday in September - day of the working people in the field of house and communal services
- October 1st - World Music Day
- October 7th - Republic Day
- October 9 - World Postal Day
- October 13th - Maritime Industry Day
- October 16 - World Food Day
- 3. Saturday in October - Day of Laborers in the Light, Food and Food Industry
- October 24th - United Nations Day
- November 7th - October Revolution Day
- 2nd Sunday in November - Chemical Worker's Day
- November 10, 1945 - Founding of the WBDJ - World Youth Day
- 3rd Sunday of November - Metallurgist's Day
- November 17th - International Student Day
- November 17th - Military Justice Day
- November 29th - International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
- December 1st - Border Troops Day of the GDR
- December 11th - Health Care Day
- December 13, 1948 - pioneer birthday, day of the foundation of the pioneer organization "Ernst Thälmann"
- December 30, 1922 - Founding of the USSR
- December 30, 1918 - founding of the KPD
literature
- Hubert Schiepek: Sunday and ecclesiastically prescribed holidays according to ecclesiastical and secular law: a legal historical investigation. 2003, p. 465
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.mdr.de/zeitreise/ffekten-reformationstag-100.html
- ↑ Ordinance on the continuous 5-day working week and the shortening of the weekly working hours with simultaneous reorganization of the working hours in a few weeks with public holidays. From May 3, 1967 , Journal II No. 38 of May 9, 1967, p. 237, repealed by notice of May 31, 1979, Journal II No. 19 of July 11, 1979, p. 164, as the most important Regulations became the subject of the Labor Code of the GDR ; “Anyone who wants to attend religious events on the church holidays can use unpaid free time .” GDR / five-day week. Never on Saturdays. Der Spiegel 36/1967 of August 28, 1967, accessed July 9, 2015.
- ^ Ordinance on the extension of statutory holidays , Journal of the GDR I (No. 18) p. 161, of March 8, 1990.
- ^ Ordinance on the introduction of public holidays , Journal of the GDR I (No. 27) p. 248, of May 16, 1990.