Summer break

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The summer break is the period in which the summer vacation takes place in the countries of the northern hemisphere and therefore both politicians and most employees take their annual vacation. It is the time when large companies often take their factory holidays and therefore the main travel season. Because large parts of their audience are more and more outdoors or at foreign holiday destinations, there is also a special summer program from the radio and TV stations.

Parliamentary summer break

As a rule, the term is used for the weeks when various parliaments do not have sessions during the summer months of June, July and August. Since the Rules of Procedure of 1980, there have generally been no meetings and no committee meetings of the German Bundestag during the parliamentary summer recess . Special plenary sessions in accordance with Article 39, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law can nonetheless be called during any time when there are no sessions, including the summer break. According to regular press releases, the MPs dedicate themselves to work in the constituencies during this period, but as parliamentary work has become increasingly professional, the members of the German Bundestag are now also granted the right to take vacation .

The introduction of the parliamentary summer break in Germany goes hand in hand with the parliaments' right to self-determination. In the Kaiserreich, the Kaiser usually postponed the Reichstag during the summer months on the basis of an ordinance if - according to the official reason - there were no more subjects to be discussed, the Weimar National Assembly in 1919 for the first time named the deputies' need for recreation as a reason for a summer break. In 1950, the German Bundestag consciously built on the Weimar tradition.

Duration

For the German Bundestag, an uninterrupted summer break of around 60 to 70 days (including Sundays) has been set for a period that corresponds to the school holidays (usually from July to August). The summer breaks were only longer if there were general elections during the summer break ; so in 1953, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1969 and 1980.

The Austrian Parliament's summer break always lasts from mid-July to 31 August. As a rule, the parliamentary summer break is five to six weeks and each parliament (state, city, municipality, etc.) determines the beginning and the end individually. Often the individual federal states are guided by the school holidays that take place during the same period. However, this is not mandatory. Necessary parliamentary work can also delay the start of the summer break, at least for the politicians, or they may be called back from the summer break earlier than planned for a meeting that has become necessary due to special circumstances.

If the ministerial side of committees requires annual reports, these are often based on the parliamentary summer break. Must not pause judiciary and the judicial system , although still not too long ago, court holidays were common.

literature

Summer break in culture

The term summer break is also often associated with television, as television series , talk shows and reality shows are interrupted in the summer because less television is watched in the summer. If the broadcast remained unchanged, this would lead to reduced advertising income. During this time, repetitions can therefore be seen more frequently within the television program . Another reason for the summer break is that viewers, especially in the case of serially narrated TV series in which the episodes build on one another, would also miss out on some of the episodes on vacation. In addition, a break is unavoidable in television series, as the cast and staff also have vacation during this time. Due to the low level of competition that prevails on US television in the summer months, some series, so-called summer series, are now deliberately placed in this period.

There is also a summer break in the season of opera houses and theaters in the larger cities. The free time is used here to prepare new productions. But here too, employees are required to plan their annual vacation during this time. Most of the time, the length of this summer break is roughly the same as that of the summer vacation.

Summer break / winter break in sports and business

In sport, too, one often speaks of a summer break . In ice hockey, the term is used for the period between April and September when there are no games.

Similar to the summer break, there is also a winter break . This mostly affects sports that depend on snow and frost-free soil. This includes football (since 1986), which has a break every year in Central and Northern European countries during the winter months, and even in the professional field , not all football pitches have underfloor heating ; in times of high energy prices, their operation is very expensive. The leader at the beginning of the winter break is called the winter or autumn champion .

Also for the swimming season and the showmanship there is this break in the cold season. Some showmen bridge it by running stalls at Christmas markets.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Parliamentary summer recess. German Bundestag , archived from the original on July 2, 2013 ; Retrieved July 24, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Imre Grimm : Summer break on television: Kalter Kaffee , Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung , June 10, 2013, accessed on June 18, 2013.
  3. ↑ Fabian Riedner & Fabian Böhme: Does a summer break still make sense? , Quotemeter.de , May 29, 2007, accessed June 18, 2013.