Overview

• Fourteen states follow a rotating schedule across a 13-week window to ease travel and price pressures while Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg begin their six-week break each year in late July.
• A survey by Sozialverband Deutschland found that about half of working parents spend more than 50 percent of their annual leave on childcare, driving calls for cost-free, pedagogically rich holiday programs instead of shorter vacations.
• Hamburg’s school authority and several other Länder have formally urged Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg to join the rotation so that all regions can equally benefit from off-peak travel and better weather.
• Markus Söder has defended Bavaria’s permanent late-holiday slot as embedded in the state’s identity and refused to support any change to its fixed dates.
• With the Kultusministerkonferenz having locked in dates through 2029 and unanimity needed for revisions, federal and state authorities alongside parent and student groups are redirecting efforts toward enhancing holiday-care infrastructure under the existing framework.