Tweet
Sometimes Germany is bewildering to me -- an alien land.
Like the fact that clergy are fighting against shops being open on Sunday. I've known 24/7/365 shopping for my whole life such that I wonder whether we ever had different laws. But then I go to Germany and the stores are never open. It's as if they take all the convenient times to shop and purposely close the store at those times.
Why would the government even be involved in this question? I've never heard a single peep from clergy state-side about this.
Like the fact that clergy are fighting against shops being open on Sunday. I've known 24/7/365 shopping for my whole life such that I wonder whether we ever had different laws. But then I go to Germany and the stores are never open. It's as if they take all the convenient times to shop and purposely close the store at those times.
Why would the government even be involved in this question? I've never heard a single peep from clergy state-side about this.
Berlin retail law ignites church fury
By Bertrand Benoit in Berlin
Published: December 22 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 22 2007 02:00
Berliners will converge on the city's malls tomorrow for one last bout of Christmas shopping. But, if the country's clergymen have their way, German shoppers will, in future, have nowhere to go on the Sabbath but the Christmas markets.
In the year's most unlikely labour dispute, Christian clerics have launched an all-out attack on a left-wing city government they think is transgressing a fundamental workers' right. And they have struck a chord in a country growing uncomfortable about all aspects of economic liberalisation.
The Catholic Archbishopric and the Evangelical Church of Berlin have filed a complaint with the constitutional court seeking to repeal an amendment to the city's shop-opening law. Bishop Wolfgang Huber, chairman of the Evangelical church council, has called the law "a -disgrace".
The amendment, pushed through last month by the city-state's coalition of Social Democrats and neo-communists, allows stores to open every Sunday in December.
For the churches, it is a breach of the Sonntagsruhe, the right enshrined in the constitution to rest on Sunday, and of a 1,700 year-old custom established by Emperor Constantine in 321.
"We are not radicals. But the extension to the advent period was the last straw," says Ulrich Seeleman at the Evangelical church council.
In the factional world of Berlin politics, the reform was one of this year's rare bills endorsed in the state parliament by all parties. Since last year's reform of Germany's federal system transferred the right to set retail opening hours to the states, no regional government has pushed liberalisation as far as Berlin.
Less than a decade ago German stores opened until 6pm on weekdays and 1pm on Saturdays. In the capital they can now trade around the clock on weekdays and on 10 Sundays a year.
The churches have been careful not to pitch their complaint in religious terms. Though Sunday work is "necessary" in certain professions, they say, shoppers are free to shop any other day of the week.
"A fundamental right is being scrapped without debate," says Stephan Förner, the archbishop of Berlin's spokesman. "If a majority is in favour, fine. But this discussion belongs in parliament."
Conservative politicians have backed the complaint - conservative-led states, such as Hamburg, the Saarland, and Catholic Bavaria, have some of the nation's strictest shopping laws - as have the trade unions. The Verdi services union, which failed to outlaw Sunday opening, is supporting the churches with its own legal expertise.
"We do not see this as a religious but a labour dispute," says Peter Weith, head of Verdi's retail section. "We support the churches wholeheartedly because they, unlike us, are entitled to go straight to the constitutional court with this issue."
HDE, the German retail federation, says Sunday opening in December is crucial if consumption is to recover.
By Bertrand Benoit in Berlin
Published: December 22 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 22 2007 02:00
Berliners will converge on the city's malls tomorrow for one last bout of Christmas shopping. But, if the country's clergymen have their way, German shoppers will, in future, have nowhere to go on the Sabbath but the Christmas markets.
In the year's most unlikely labour dispute, Christian clerics have launched an all-out attack on a left-wing city government they think is transgressing a fundamental workers' right. And they have struck a chord in a country growing uncomfortable about all aspects of economic liberalisation.
The Catholic Archbishopric and the Evangelical Church of Berlin have filed a complaint with the constitutional court seeking to repeal an amendment to the city's shop-opening law. Bishop Wolfgang Huber, chairman of the Evangelical church council, has called the law "a -disgrace".
The amendment, pushed through last month by the city-state's coalition of Social Democrats and neo-communists, allows stores to open every Sunday in December.
For the churches, it is a breach of the Sonntagsruhe, the right enshrined in the constitution to rest on Sunday, and of a 1,700 year-old custom established by Emperor Constantine in 321.
"We are not radicals. But the extension to the advent period was the last straw," says Ulrich Seeleman at the Evangelical church council.
In the factional world of Berlin politics, the reform was one of this year's rare bills endorsed in the state parliament by all parties. Since last year's reform of Germany's federal system transferred the right to set retail opening hours to the states, no regional government has pushed liberalisation as far as Berlin.
Less than a decade ago German stores opened until 6pm on weekdays and 1pm on Saturdays. In the capital they can now trade around the clock on weekdays and on 10 Sundays a year.
The churches have been careful not to pitch their complaint in religious terms. Though Sunday work is "necessary" in certain professions, they say, shoppers are free to shop any other day of the week.
"A fundamental right is being scrapped without debate," says Stephan Förner, the archbishop of Berlin's spokesman. "If a majority is in favour, fine. But this discussion belongs in parliament."
Conservative politicians have backed the complaint - conservative-led states, such as Hamburg, the Saarland, and Catholic Bavaria, have some of the nation's strictest shopping laws - as have the trade unions. The Verdi services union, which failed to outlaw Sunday opening, is supporting the churches with its own legal expertise.
"We do not see this as a religious but a labour dispute," says Peter Weith, head of Verdi's retail section. "We support the churches wholeheartedly because they, unlike us, are entitled to go straight to the constitutional court with this issue."
HDE, the German retail federation, says Sunday opening in December is crucial if consumption is to recover.
Comment