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Panoramic view of the clock hall at PTB with the four caesium clocks CS1, CS2, CSF1 and CSF2.

DST and midsummer DST in Germany until 1979

DST and midsummer DST in Germany until 1979

The following list was kindly given to the PTB by the Deutsches Hydrographisches Institut, Hamburg. The information agrees, except for the year 1945, with that found in Grimm, Hoffmann, Ebertin, Puettjer, "Die Geographischen Positionen Europas", Ebertin-Verlag, Freiburg 1994 (GHEP). GHEP states for all years the issues of the Reichsgesetzblatt or the pertinent session of the allied control council which allows to check the validity of the dates given below. Therefore information from GHEP has been used for the tables shown below. According to GHEP, rules in the three western zones differed from those in Berlin and the Sowjet zone (see section (c) below).


a) DST, Universal Time + 2 hours:

Clocks were advanced one hour with respect to CET:

1916-04-30  23:00:00 CET to 1916-10-01  1:00:00 CEST
1917-04-16    2:00:00 CET to 1917-09-17 3:00:00 CEST
1918-04-15   2:00:00 CET to 1918-09-16 3:00:00 CEST

1919 to 1939: No DST

1940-04-01    2:00:00 CET to 1942-11-02 3:00:00 CEST
1943-03-29    2:00:00 CET to 1943-10-04 3:00:00 CEST
1944-04-03    2:00:00 CET to 1944-10-02  3:00:00 CEST
1945-04-02    2:00:00 CET to 1945-09-16 2:00:00 CEST
1946-04-14    2:00:00 CET to 1946-10-07  3:00:00 CEST
1947-04-06    3:00:00 CET to 1947-10-05 3:00:00 CEST
1948-04-18   2:00:00 CET to 1948-10-03  3:00:00 CEST
1949-04-10    2:00:00 CET to 1949-10-02 3:00:00 CEST

Since 1950 no DST 


b) Midsummer DST, Universal Time + 3 hours:

1947-05-11   3:00:00 CEST to 1947-06-29  3:00:00 CEMT



c) Special regulations in the Soviet military zone and Berlin according to GHEP:

1945-05-24, 02:00 CET (?) change to CEMT until 1945-09-24, 03:00:00 CEMT (?), followed by CEST until 1945-11-18, 03:00 CEST (?).

According to GHEP, in 1949 DST commenced at 03:00 CET.

According to the "Archiv für publizist. Arbeit" (Munzinger-Archiv) 652 (Zeitsystem) of November 25, 1961, 8670, midsummer DST was also effective from May 31, 1945 until September 23, 1945 (regions not specified).

Abbreviations

UT: Universal Time ("Greenwich-Time")

DST: Daylight Saving Time

CET = UT + 1 h : Central European Time

CEST = UT + 2 h :  Central European Summer Time

CEMT = UT + 3 h : Central European Midsummer Time