I hate Sundays in Germany

Live near a field full of cows and tell me they are not noisy. There are sheep in the fields on the other side, they are even noisier. The farmer could quite easily bring the animals in on Saturday night and give us, in the village, a peaceful Sunday. The animals are most definately part of a business establishment (the farm). The farmer should be made to grow crops if he cannot keep his animals quiet...or open a 24/7 hairdressers so people can get their haircut at 3am Sunday morning.

But cows are responsible for greenhouse gasses and this terrible global warming trend we have seen in the past few days

its a moot point...as legistlation now allows for certain region businesses to set their own hours...its taking a bit longer, but its obviously coming. Like I said, in modern, more progressive Berlin... many stores and most groceries stay open until 21, 22 and some midnight...Dussman, a german version of Barnes & Noble...open until midnight 6 days/week (for 6 months they went 24 hours from friday until sunday).

obviously in germany there are more germans, but the point being...there were more people crowded into these anomoly opening hours vendors than regular. Perhaps we can open a semantics thread to discuss anything that is not comprehended in an associated topic.

"if you open it, they will come!"

In my last apartment, the cows were often in the pasture right next to us. I had to keep the windows closed if I wanted to easily hear my TV set. They can be quite loud, especially at milking time! Was worse in Switzerland, where all the cows have those bells around their necks. Now at the new house, I can still hear the cows quite clearly from the next village over. They've got bells, too.


view from my window in old apt

Fine I'm a city boy, I guess cows are loud..

If there is a market in your village for a 24/7 haircut place I would wholeheartedly support it being allowed to run. If I can go to the kietz and pay some eastern european to blow me at 3 am on a sunday, I should be able to have a turk use some clippers.

"if you open it, they will come!"...They will here: http://www.der-leierkasten.de/

You dont like Sunday because of laundry??? do on other day. I dont waste even one sunday at home. I love travelling and exploring new places. Weekends are for it... rest can be done on regular days !!!

Nope - it's a regional thing in India, some have it, some don't. The places that do aren't any more or less American than the places that don't...

By definition, they are.

You are right. I was just saying some people don't have a chance to work less than 50 or 60 hours because they would seriously risk losing their source of income.
I wish at least some larger supermarkets could be open on sundays, but I wouldn't like to see any of the regular employees suffer from that.
There should be enough people, like students or part-time workers, who would be happy to work on sundays. No regular employee should be forced to do that.

What about bartenders, waiters, u-bahn drivers, hookers, gas station clerks all be subjected to working on sundays?

Sure and the Hauptbahnhof is American, but Marienplatz isn't...

So self-employed people should have their income capped? Sole-proprietor shops should close shop after they are open 35 hours in a week? What about artists and musicians? They must be shut down!

In America, we have this thing called capitalism... You set your own live-work balance, not the government.

And why would the government want to limit a workweek? Generally, more work = more profit = more tax base = more money to spend on our military.

And to stay on topic, I may start working more on Sundays (effectively self employed) so I can go enjoy a M-F workday with my family when things are actually open and public transit is running.

Way to perpetuate the stereotypes..

I don't really see the point of food shops opening on a Sunday when they cannot on the whole manage their stock on the days they are currently open.

I would much rather see a full range of goods after 4pm weekdays and 2pm saturdays (e.g. milk, onions, chicken, carrots etc).

That's up to them to sort out, don't you think? If they can't manage it, then they don't have to open on Sundays.

Who is the government to say what I should do? Anarchy forever!!!

Oh, they have a cave troll... (see comment at bottom)

@gatzke.. which you are of course allowed to do.

However when it comes to other peoples working lives, leave them alone. Also good luck (if you have kids) in finding a school to let your kid out the extra day a week.

I think you will find that in capitalism, your boss has a big say in your work to life balance if you let him/her.

**** responce to comment on military*** not intended to re-open the threads on various conflicts*******

Spend all the cash you want on the military, next time try having enough troops to use the stuff and so avoid having to ask other people to send theirs.

Right, so because I suggest that a willing seller and a willing consumer should be able to engage in an otherwise legal business transaction regardless of what day it is, you think I want to throw out all laws.

You must admit that this is a bit of a stretch...

Psst, let me let you in on a secret...YOU ARE NOT IN AMERICA!!!


ExF'ingActly!

Subject equals dead horse equals quite your bitch'n!

@cd6dba - once again, do you oppse all the other jobs that employ people on sundays? (other than medical/police i.e. the things society can't function without)

I would love to have Sunday opening but I fear that it would be a step too far ...

The more we and others bitch, the more likely it is to happen some day. And it will happen...it's been headed that way for years.

And then you'll all be shocked because you can still go to the park and skip through the woods and sit in the garden on Sundays - in fact, it will probably be even better than now because some of those people sitting in the park are only there because the shops can't open.

Hence Sunday trading = less people skipping through the woods with their families = more room for you and your family to frolic away a Sunday in the park...

So it will even be BETTER for those who don't like to shop on Sundays

I think they should close all the airports down on Sunday
and the motorways and trains I want a bit of bloody peace and quite while I'm drinking my sunday afternoon tea

edit - and those frigin bell ringers could take a day off as well

I somehow don't think bitching on TT is going to have much effect on Sunday opening...but then again I could be wrong

No, I've changed my mind. We NEED to go back to the good old days, the old ways of living, the traditions and customs that made life so great way back when. In fact, I think we should turn the clocks back to 1281.

The Goslarer Krämerordnung in 1281 made Sunday shopping illegal from the front doors, but allowed selling from backdoors!


source: http://www.koeblergerhard.de/ZRG122Interne...hlussgesetz.htm

There... that should make everyone happy, old-fashioned traditionalists and modern-day shoppers alike!

I'm getting the council to build a Eruv

We won't be using it on Sundays - so do feel free.

shame they pulled the wall down then east berlin shopping paradise

Yeah - but I'm looking to see if we can get a Waitrose built in.

Not only on TT - general bitching.

If enough people in Germany demand it and enough bitch about it, then it will happen. I'm happy to do my share here...

But I don't think there are enough people in Germany that want it (Sunday shopping that is) otherwise why hasn't it started yet?

Maybe, just maybe, people in other countries where there is 24 hour shopping 7 days a week are wishing things could go back to the way it was and still is here in Germany? There is a reason why there is a huge market for "getting out of the rat race" type crap in all these other places. To be honest, none of my German friends are bitching, but half the expats I know are. Funny that?

It is like politics, there is a happy medium and it won't make everyone 100% happy. Mom and pops can compete in this atmosphere. Force them to over extend themselves and they will go out of business. In the States, when the laws were relaxed and Sunday shopping was opened up I know several small to medium chains that went belly up. This was not a single store, this was hundreds and hundreds of owner operated stores within a family of stores (Kings, White Stores, White Way, Piggly Wiggly, Consolidated Grocers and many others). Suddenly, your neighborhood market was a 10 mile drive to a mega store that employed less people, gave less benefits and shoved the assembly line aspect of customer service down your throat. I lived through the lifting of the Blue Laws and watched my favorite stores go out of business one after another.

You want something, but are you willing to give up that local neighborhood store that is just so convenient? Do you really understand the impact that it will have? You do know that Malls were not all that profitable until they lifted the laws and ran everyone else out of business don't you? Do you really understand what you are asking for and what you will actually get in return?

Sorry, but some of the very reasons we all like living here are attached to the way things are, not the way things you want them to be.

If Sundays are so sacred, then why are elections always held on a Sunday? Shouldn't the government do its business only Mon-Sat?

As for demand, why are gas stations now stocking basic grocery supplies? They wouldn't be able to sell the stuff if there were no demand. Instead, the gasoline stores are getting bigger and better stocked all the time. Who is buying all that stuff at higher prices when they could get the same for cheaper during the week? No demand? Piffle!

edit: My neighbourhood market is already a 10 mile drive to a crappy Netto

I went to an open Sunday in Cologne last year and the shops where full to overflowing. Where did the people come from?

Excellent statement that, I agree.

@eurovol: So you support blue laws? Wow, the first non bible beating baptist i've heard say that.

Also when was sunday grocery shopping verboten in America, the 70s? Certainly not since I was born (or at least old enough to remember).

What local neighbourhood store are you talking about? All the food shops in my area without exception, belong to chains. From the supermarkets, to the butcher, to the baker. All of them.

But curiously, the restaurants and bars - which are all allowed to open on Sundays. All of them - the döner shop, the small Italian restaurant the Szechuan place, the Stüberl and the rest, are independent small businesses.

So as far as I'm concerned, that argument doesn't hold any water...

I support the restoration of the mom and pop stores. I support laws that allow them to compete. I support small business owners and fair trade practices. In a globalized world (which I am totally not against) that is out of control (which I am against), there are a few things that can be done and should be done.
Corporatism is just not going to get us where we need to be and a few inconveniences (to those that can't manage and plan) are the least we can do to promote a better society and a healthy local economy.

If I really wanted all these other things, I would move back to the States where I could buy a gun at Walmart at 3am.

So would you support the right for only stores that are independently run to open on Sundays? Say stores that have less than x number of employees or x amount of floor space? That would be giving the small stores an advantage over the larger ones...

How difficult can it be to plan ahead to have enough (insert your own personal indespensable item) for one day? It happens every week that the shops are closed on a Sunday so it can hardly take us by surprise.

Oh my god the shops are closed, however will I survive for 24 hours without a box of toothpics?

You can also use the large leaves on the trees.

Longer working hours = less family time, break down of the family unit = fuck up "hoodie" children = shitty grades in school= nobody clever enough to build your new bombs for your military.

Learn things.

Currently the Open Sunday is kind of an event, it does not mean that it is going to be like that if every Sunday is open.

Life in Germany = circa 1950

But with plenty of food.

Oh my god, a grocery store is open on sunday. However will European society not degenerate into mindless American unfettered capitalistic barbarism if foodstuffs are added to the numerous other services that can be peddled on a Sunday.

I'm curious and have a question for the folks who are so vehemently opposed to Sunday shopping. Do you also avoid all activities on Sundays that mean someone else has to work?

Yes, unless they're Turkish.

Since I'm Jewish we don't do anything on Saturdays so normally on Sunday we either starve or eat kosher potato chips from the petrol station.

To be fair, if shops were allowed to open on a Sunday then people would use them. In the UK, Sunday is now the busiest day of the week after Saturday. This is precisely why it needs to stay banned. The role of a government is not to allow people to do whatever they want, whenever they want; it is to lay down the conditions necessary for the country to function as is best seen fit. This may include – shock, horror – determining how many extra hours companies can force us to work without bothering to pay us any extra, or dictating that we can't go shopping on a Sunday because we should be doing something at least vaguely constructive instead. The public need protecting from themselves, and that is the government's job.