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The 8th of March in Berlin

The 8th of March in Berlin 890 571 Adrien Morello

Today is the 8th of March: International Women’s Day. The aim of this day is to bring attention to the situation of women in the world, but also to fight collectively for the enforcement of women’s rights, so that humanity can be equal in its fundamental rights!

This day is celebrated in many countries, but it is a public holiday in only 31 countries – here is a map with the corresponding countries, France, Switzerland or Belgium are not included. What about Germany? Well, it’s not the case either, except… in Berlin! How is this possible? Well, this makes a nice topic for an article!

A quick recap about women’s rights day

International Women’s Day is an long-standing idea: suggested as early as 1910 by Clara Zetkin, it was finally recognised by the UN in 1977. Before the First World War, the struggle was mainly aimed at demanding the right to vote for women – obtained in 1918 in Germany. After the war, the struggle moved on to other issues: for equal rights and better living conditions for women.

These struggles in the 21st century have extended to other topics: excision, political parity, real equality (and not only de jure), denouncing the culture of rape, incest, denouncing patriarchy, etc. and the list continues!

(* Translation: Give women the right to vote – Women’s Day – 8th March 1914)

A public holiday only in Berlin

So why is this day a public holiday (only) in Berlin?

Decisions at Land level

It is always good to keep in mind that Germany is a federal country. The federal states (the Länder) retain a large degree of autonomy with regard to local life and, in particular, to the choice of public holidays.

Some days are public holidays for the whole country (there are 9 of them, including 1st January, 1st May and the National Day [I leave you, non-German readers, to look for this one ;-). We’ll do an article about it on that date]. Each Land can also add its own public holidays. For example, 1st November is a non-working day in the Land of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, whereas this is not the case in Berlin.

A new public holiday in Berlin

The second important point to clarify is that the decision to make the 8th of March a public holiday in Berlin is relatively recent: it dates from January 2019. People had noticed that Berlin, the party city, did not have many public holidays: only the 9 national days, whereas Bavaria, for example, has 13, or Baden-Württemberg, 12.

The Berlin City Council was therefore called upon to define a new public holiday. The choice was a difficult one: a religious holiday (15th August, 30th October, 1st November) ? or a celebration (18th March [anniversary of the 1848 revolution], 8th August [day of peace] ? or a day to celebrate the 1948/1949 airlift ? 9th November, which not only marks the fall of the Wall, but also the advent of the First German Republic and an anti-Jewish Pogrom [Night of Broken Glass]?

No, it will be the 8th of March, the Frauentag,. Mayor Michael Müller pointed out that:

It is about becoming aware that much has been done in our society in favour of equality, but that much remains to be done. Just think of the professional world, where men earn more than women for the same job.

Michael Müller, Mayor of Berlin since 2014

Not sure that the other Länder would follow Berlin and add the 8th of March to their public holidays – they would have to give up an existing public holiday. It is worth noting that, at the moment, Berlin is the only place in Western Europe to have the 8th of March as a public holiday.

Too often, this day is not fully understood. 8 March = “women’s day”? The battle is still long, even in Europe, even in Berlin. I am delighted to see that the denunciation of sexist acts has become more frequent in recent years. This helps us to become more aware of the extent of the work that needs to be done, so that real equality can finally be achieved.

 Best wishes to all activists fighting for more gender justice!