National days of remembrance and public holidays

Calendar with a blue pin

Source: HomeStudio / shutterstock.com

This section provides useful information regarding the national days of remembrance and public holidays observed in Germany. It is important to note that Germany's constitution, the Basic Law, confers no express legislative powers on the Federation to regulate public holidays. The federal states are responsible for observing the individual holidays. An exception to this rule – due to its status as a state symbol – is the national holiday: The Day of German Unity on 3 October is by its very nature regulated by federal law under the Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic on the Establishment of German Unity (Unification Treaty).

More on the subject Days of remembrance and public holidays

  • General information

    Responsibility of the federal states (Länder)

  • 27 January

    Liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945

  • 17 June

    On 17 June Germany commemorates the popular uprising in East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

  • 20 June

    Day of Remembrance for Refugees and Expellees

  • 20 July

    Commemoration of the resistance to the National Socialist reign of terror in Berlin in 1944

  • 3 October

    Day of German Unity

  • Day of National Mourning

    On the Day of National Mourning (the Sunday two weeks before the first Sunday in Advent)