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Traveling to Munich in august 2022, I have noticed that the 15th of august seems to be a public holiday in some parts of Germany, and in Munich in particular.

As I am not fluent in German, I have difficulties to check what to expect in terms of closed or open places, and as I will arrive on the evening of the 14th of august, I'd like to anticipate.

Will supermarket or smaller food shops be open ? What about restaurants ? What about museums ?

[edit after the travel]

In the residential area outside of Munich city center where I was hosted, I actually found a nice Bäckerei opened on the 15th morning for breakfast, and a small kiosk opened on the afternoon to buy a few items for the next day's breakfast. The Deutsches Museum was also opened to the public.

audionuma
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2 Answers2

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Mariä Himmelfahrt is a local holiday in Saarland and in the predominantly catholic communities in Bavaria (1.704 out of 2.056 communities). The further south you are in Bavaria (such as in Munich), the higher the likelyhood of it being a holiday.

Employees may not be employed on Sundays and public holidays from midnight to midnight. (§9(1) (ArbZG)).

§10(1) (ArbZG) contains (a German only) list of professions where exceptions can be made.

A summery of all of these rules, specific to Munich, can be found here:

Verkauf von Reisebedarf (Zeitungen, Zeitschriften, Straßenkarten, Stadtpläne, Reiselektüre, Filme, Tonträger, Bedarf für Reiseapotheke, Reiseandenken und Spielzeug geringen Wertes, Lebens- und Genussmittel in kleineren Mengen sowie ausl. Geldsorten)

Sale of travel supplies (newspapers, magazines, road maps, city plans, travel literature, films, sound carriers, travel first aid kits, travel souvenirs and toys of low value, food and luxury goods in small quantities as well as foreign types of money)

Generally speaking, shops that deal with travellers in places such as train stations will be open. The further away from a travel hub you are, the less likely it is to find shops open. Shops that state that they are offering some form of Reisebedarf (travel supplies) are generally allowed to stay open when others must close.

Restaurants, cinemas, zoos etc. are generally open.

Each museum will decide for themselfs if they open or not. If you see something like Feiertags geschlossen in their opening hours, then they are closed.

From @mlk: Gemeinden in Bayern, in denen „Mariä Himmelfahrt“ 2021 ein Feiertag ist is an official map [as PDF] which marks all the communities where it is a holiday in blue. enter image description here

Mark Johnson
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I don't know Munich personally but here's a broad strokes answer which should apply to large German cities (you should expect significantly fewer options in smaller cities, towns or villages).

Almost all shops will be closed, due to legal restrictions. There are two main exceptions:

  • those primarily serving travellers (i.e. stores in train stations, fuel stations, or airports)
  • I'm told in the comments that these are less common in Bavaria due to stricter licensing but I'll leave it in for completion: "Kiosks" - small stores which mostly sell snacks and drinks. Kiosk is the general term here in Hamburg, in Berlin one would typically be called a Späti (short for Spätkauf: late-shopping), I don't know what the most common term is in Munich. You can normally find them operating late at night and on Sundays and holidays in most German cities. Frequency depends on the part of town - they tend to be more common in areas with lots of bars and restaurants than in quiet residential zones, and as mentioned above they're apparently rare in Munich and the rest of Bavaria anyway.

Most restaurants follow their usual hours on holidays (other than Christmas, New Year, and perhaps to a lesser extent Easter). Some may be shut (in fact, it's not unusual for restaurants to have Mondays as a Ruhetag - day off - anyway) but you shouldn't have much trouble finding somewhere to eat.

The same largely applies to museums. They typically follow their usual hours on holidays, with the same exceptions. It's also not unusual (but far from universal!) for them to be shut on Mondays even when it's not a holiday. There's no general answer, you should check the website for whichever museum(s) you're interested in. Most have English versions available, which may be somewhat limited but should at least contain opening hours and holiday information.

Chris H
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