Time change
Winter time begins: the clocks change on Sunday
Early on Sunday morning, the clocks are reset from 3 a.m. to 2 a.m. – with many digital models this happens automatically. photo
© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
Before? Back? What was that again? Winter time begins this Sunday. And although the time change gives us an hour more sleep this time, the concept is not popular.
Early on Sunday morning it’s that time again: the clocks are set back from 3 a.m. to 2 a.m. This means that this applies again in Germany and in most European countries Standard time, also called winter time.
The advantage of the change for many people is that they can sleep an hour longer on Sunday and it gets light earlier in the morning.
But a large majority of Germans reject the time change. According to a survey from March, 75 percent of those surveyed in a representative opinion poll by the research institute YouGov were in favor of an end to double clock turning. Only 18 percent want to diligently move forward and back.
The time change should be abolished – but it will take time
The EU Commission already planned to abolish the switch between summer and winter time in 2018. No binding decisions have been made so far. The European governments could not agree on whether they wanted to keep summer or winter time permanently.
The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig is responsible for disseminating legal time in Germany. The PTB spreads the time in different ways. “The widely known means of disseminating time in Germany is the long-wave transmitter DCF77, which controls radio clocks,” said Dirk Piester from the PTB.
The vast majority of DCF77 receivers are mass-market radio-controlled clocks, he said. It is estimated that over 100 million of these are in operation. These clocks showed time to the second. “For the professional sector, there are radio clocks that synchronize with an accuracy of a few 10 microseconds,” explained Piester.
When does summer time start?
Winter time begins on the last Sunday in October. On March 31st next year the clocks will be set forward again by one hour. Then summer time applies again.
Information about summer time