A lesson from Germany

Having moved to Berlin last September, one of the things that took the most getting used to was the fact that, over here, Sundays are still respected.  Not only are shops closed, but it is illegal to mow the law, wash your car or to feed your cat in the garden.  Even the bottle banks have signs on them prohibiting use of them on a Sunday (and on any other designated "Ruhetag" (day of peace) for that matter).





I remember, when I were a lad, that it used to be the same back in England.  I have fond memories of going for a walk through the deserted town centre after Sunday lunch and the fact that it was quite a rarity to see a car on the streets, or even another person for that matter.  Sundays were special and you knew it.

The problem was this, a few larger retailers worked out that despite the ban on Sunday opening their profits would far outweigh the fines that would be imposed upon them, so slowly Sunday turned into any other day of the week, with the Conservative government finally bowing to pressure and implementing the Sunday Trading Laws (not their finest hour).

The sugar to the pill was that opening hours would be severely restricted and that anyone opting (yes, no-one can force you to work on a Sunday, no matter what they say) to work on a Sunday was entitled to premium pay.  I for one have never experienced the latter, and doubt that many people do; and it would appear that the former is slowly being eroded away in a tide of "browsing time".  How long will it be before another enterprising business works out that their company will still be able to pay the fine levied for opening 0700-1800 on a Sunday out of their substantial profits?

And that's where the Germans come in.  Yes there is Sunday trading, but it is strictly controlled.  The only shops that are allowed to open on a Sunday are those in travel hubs (airports, stations etc.,) which offer goods which are essential to travel.  The law even goes so far as forcing larger shops to close off aisles which don't contain any of the requisite goods.

The one downside to this law is that it is very much open to interpretation, which leads to any major station simply becoming a large shopping-centre with a few trains; the key example here being Berlin Hauptbahnhof.  It has getting on for 100 stores, of which the vast majority are open on a Sunday.  If anyone can explain to me how Swarovski Crystal is a travel necessity, I'd very much like to know.

However, the Senate in Berlin has gotten wise to this little escapade and is now rigorously enforcing the rules; to the extent that there are now only 27 shops in Berlin Hauptbahnhof that open on a Sunday (of these, a large number are "rebel stores", which are flouting the ban... more on this later).  This is, in my mind, a very positive development, especially following so close to the recent change in the law which eliminates the right for shops to open on each Sunday in Advent.

However, the shopkeepers of Berlin Hauptbahnhof are gearing up for a fight, launching a campaign named "Wilkommen in Posemuckel" (Welcome to Posemuckel (a small village in Poland)), encouraging visitors to the station to send letter of protest to the Senator responsible.

Part of the campaign in Berlin Hauptbahnhof

The argument of the shopkeepers (unhappy with having a captive audience for at least six days of the week) is that the fact that the shops in the station are closed will present a negative image of Berlin and will discourage tourism.  I could agree with that, if it wasn't for the fact that the rest of Berlin is closed on Sunday anyway; a fact that the tourists will surely discover once they set foot outside of the station.

The problem I find with them focussing their campaign on tourists is quite simple; they are focussing their campaign on tourists, i.e. people who are only spending a short time in Berlin and are unlikely to be affected by the long-term effects of the situation should they succeed in their campaign.  If they, instead, decided to focus on citizens of Berlin, I imagine that they might get a slightly different reaction.

Their other argument seems to rest on the idea of "everyone else is doing it, why can't we", with their campaign highlighting a number of stations in other countries that permit Sunday opening.  There are two fallacies to this argument:

1. What they're talking about is a matter of law rather than custom.  I've yet to see anyone mount a successful defence of a criminal action by arguing that it would have been allowed in a different country under a different legal system.
2. As any of you who know me will know, one of the main things I love about Berlin is the fact that it is different.  It has a slower pace of life, it's less penned in and it's closed on Sundays.  Maybe the traders will find (to their disadvantage) that by slowly turning Berlin into a mirror-image of any other city in the world, they'll lose much more custom than by just closing for one day a week.

Yes, I may find it slightly inconvenient when I run out of bread or milk on a Sunday morning, but I'll happily live with that if it means getting a peaceful, restful and unique Sunday experience.

Original article (in German) here.