As a country, the broadest generalization I can think of, Germany does not have opening hours which work with the schedules of the modern employed person. Maybe it’s actually broader than that – maybe it’s “I’m not sure Germany is living in 2019.”
But it could also very well be “I am applying my frame of reference to an entire culture and frustrated that it doesn’t fit.” Again.
If you’ve been in Germany for roughly two hours you’ve seen opening hour signs on doors of various businesses that look like this:
- Mon: rühetag
- Diens: 10:15 – 10:35, 11:50 – 13:00
- Mitt: nach Vereinbarung
- Donners: 09:00 – 12:00, 16:00-17:00
- Frei: 09:00-12:00
These opening hours translate to “you’re going to need to take a day of vacation to use our services.”
Why Are You Talking About This?
Because my birthday is coming up, and as a super special treat to myself, I schedule all my yearly and semi-annual doctor visits for around this day so I don’t forget. I don’t know about you, but there’s no better way to celebrate another trip around the sun like a fabulous poke-the-gums-till-they-bleed-“oh-look-you-have-gingivitis!” sesh. So as I am attempting to coordinate all these appointments, my brain is slowly dissolving trying to cram everyone in on one or two days because my commute is, frankly, hellish, and I’d like to avoid literally living on a train between Wiesbaden and Frankfurt trying to get to work and doctor’s offices. Work from home is a nice option, but what would be even better is doctor’s offices which would open at regular intervals for longer periods of time. Or restaurants. Or dry cleaners. Or the freaking grocery store.
I’m also writing about this because there’s another holiday looming this week. Spring is lovely in Germany: no one is here because there’s a holiday every week for a month or two. This is because we are efficient, and why spread those holidays around the year, when we could cram them all into the wettest, coldest times of year in Europe, and then go 9 months before the next holiday?
How many holidays are there? Entirely depends on which Bundesland you live in. I personally think the Catholic Bundeslände have the best schedules, and I envy those across the river who venture into our fair Hesse on those days they have off to take advantage of the fact that our stores are open.
“You mean stores aren’t open on the days when 90% of the general population, who have spending capacity and would gladly give retailers their money, are home and have nothing else to do?”
Yes, I am saying that.
Yes, it’s also important for everyone to have a holiday, but I mean come on – some of us need to buy food because we are terrible planners.
Planning: An Important Lesson For Moving Abroad
I absolutely need / could be better at reading a calendar and then making that analytical leap in my head of:
“Holiday = Stores Closed = (this is the hard part) buy extra groceries a few days in advance“
But in all fairness, learning a new calendar is part of moving abroad and it’s something that goes overlooked. I arrived here a few days before Good Friday and let me tell you, I thought we had done something wrong by staying in Wiesbaden, as I went out for a walk to get some flowers for Easter and the town was dead. Literally, no sounds, no bells, no pedestrian crosswalk signals, no traffic signals, no birds, no annoying accordions. Good Friday is taken seriously in Germany, and there will absolutely be no dancing or fun on this day.
Favorite quote from that article: “Up until now, I had no idea that the SPD was the party of fun,” 75-year-old former speaker of parliament Wolfgang Thierse said.
Keeping up with your new social calendar is part of your responsibility as a newcomer to your new country. It’s not so much a chore as it is a fun new part of life that’s different from your old one. Embrace the new holidays with vigour and excitement!
But Sundays...
I haven’t really embraced “everything is closed on Sundays” with excitement and vigour. I’m not sure I ever will, and that’s ok, because Sunday is neither for excitement nor vigour. They are for relaxing and going for walks in nature or visiting neighbors and family and having cakes and coffee. No loud noises are allowed on this day and that also means no power tools or machines. Don’t be surprised if your neighbor below you takes a walk up to your flat to complain about your running washing machine during Ruhezeiten.
Personally I feel like we cheat this a little bit because Z can pop over to base any time and pick up essentials we’ve forgotten to prepare for. On the other hand, why not take advantage of a privilege if it’s not hurting anyone? I definitely get over my pride when I’m proudly baking some amazing creation and am short an egg.
For those who don’t have base access whenever (I count myself here because I rely on someone else to get my American spray cheese in a can baking supplies), it’s important to change up habits you might have carried over from your home where Sundays are another shopping day. Saturdays are absolutely terrible for shopping due to the rest of the working crowds who can’t get to a Rewe before 8pm. After work, hit or miss, especially depending on the store. But around 7pm is my nightmare as I join all the other ragged and haggard masses at the Hauptbahnhof Rewe. On the other hand, I can get through a solid 30 minutes of whatever podcast I’m onto at the moment waiting in line at the “express self-checkout” lanes, which are not express when everyone in these lanes needs a bag, and there are none stocked.
Which brings me back to: why does it feel like Germany hasn’t caught up to the fact that for some people, work hours are longer, for others work shifts are random and varied, and for others, maybe they have sports or social activities they’d like to do after work and can’t commit to getting shopping done those days? I’d say rely on Amazon and shipping services but…it’s not pleasant. There are many ways to make life better, more convenient, but we’ve never done it that way before so why change now?
That being said, I have figured out a service to bring back some sanity and that is Marley Spoon (known as Martha and Marley Spoon in the USA). It took me awhile to figure out the best delivery times, the recipes I liked, the quantity I need per week, but once I discovered all of that was changeable from week to week it’s become a staple. While I miss being automated on Amazon delivery schedules, I’m also ok learning a new. way to get what I need and adapt to new times and methods of getting it.
Really? No Shopping On Sundays?
Of course there’s an exception! Some Bundeslände do have Shopping Sundays. I personally have not taken advantage of them, but you can find the schedule here.
What Did We Learn?
We have learned Germany, being a different country from the one we’re from, has different cultural ideas around opening hours of stores and services. What a concept.
It’s not groundbreaking when read in black and white like that, but living it feels strange and uncomfortable. If I had to negotiate a general change of schedules in German services and businesses, I would say “keep your Sundays closed, but you have got to have better opening hours during the week.” To me this would be an excellent compromise, but I’m not sure Germany is there yet. Or really wants to ever be there, who knows?
