Germany is considering breaking a rule in force since 1919 as a desperate measure to boost its economy: working on Sundays
Bedran Günes was working on the cash register at his store in Berlin when two agents entered. They looked through their soup cans, their spices, and their bread. He was then fined 2,500 euros. Their crime: selling non-perishable food, but above all, doing so on Sunday, violating the 1919 rule contained in the German Constitution that prohibits opening on Sunday. “Sonntagsruhe”, they call it. Günes recognized to the Wall Street Journal that continues to do so. “Otherwise, my business would go bankrupt,” said the grocery store owner. He estimates that up to 40% of his sales are made just that day. A break that comes from 1919. The rule that fined Günes for working on Sunday is more than a century old. He was born in the Weimar Constitution proclaimed in 1919, which is still valid today in the article 140 of the German Basic Law. The text indicates the protection of Sunday “as days of rest and spiritual reflection.” Since then, on Sundays in Germany only bars, restaurants and gas stations open with a strict government permit. Supermarkets can only sell bread, drinks, tobacco or takeaway food that can be eaten on the street or standing (street food, etc.). Any other commercial activity is prohibited until Monday. Merz’s plan. Germany’s government is dealing with a stagnant economy since 2019 that does not give signs recovery and its main industry making water. Chancellor Friedrich Merz is not willing to throw in the towel, so he is implementing a intensive reform plan to revive the German economy. The German government has already touched medical leave, pensionsthe work dayand now proposes that retail businesses can also open on Sundays to extend opening hours to save their economy. Found positions. The change is scheduled for January 2027, and the measure has already found supporters and opponents. Unions see it as an attack on labor rights. They have been joined by some merchants who claim that “we have a hard time finding employees who are willing to work every Saturday, so how are we going to find employees to work on Sundays?” declared Catrin Schulz, an optician in Berlin. to the british The Telegraph. Furthermore, merchants point out that their customers already buy online on Sundays anyway, so the productivity of commerce (beyond restaurants) does not decline during Sunday. The numbers that move the debate. The German retail sector is feeling the crisis. has lost 60,000 jobs since 2022 and more than 50,000 stores have closed in the last five years, according to its own employers. Meanwhile, the country’s unemployment exceeds three million of people, something that has not happened for more than a decade. A survey of YouGov recently published reveals that 43% of Germans would support opening more on Sundays. Just a year ago, that support was around 34%. Half of the country is still against it, but resistance is cracking little by little, especially among the youngest. In Xataka | Germany believes it has found the most German possible solution to its productivity problems: work more Image | Unsplash (Gonzalo Leon Jasin, Tim Mossholder)