Clocks are advanced for daylight saving time

Watchmaker Eric Hoos sets the time on a Rombach and Haas cuckoo clock. Image: dpa

For over forty years, Germany switched to daylight saving time in March. Today was that time again: The night was short, but from now on the light will be longer at night.

Daylight saving time resumes on Sunday night. At 2:00 am clocks advance one hour to 3:00 am, so night is one hour shorter. Daylight saving time was introduced in Germany in 1980 to save energy. According to critics, however, the savings are small and some people also complain of temporary sleep disturbances. Others crave longer, brighter summer nights.

The atomic clocks of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig are the clocks that keep time in Germany. The EU has long been discussing the abolition of the time change. However, no deal is in sight so far. The question is currently on hold. However, a joint approach is considered important to avoid a patchwork quilt.

According to the data platform Statista, around 72% of Germans consider changing the time to summer or winter to be superfluous and are of the opinion that it should be abolished. Acceptance of the time change has dropped continuously since 2013, but has recently risen slightly again.