Eastern Germany In Favor Of Keeping October 3 Public Holiday

Sources: Die Welt/DPA, LVZ-Online, and Germany public holidays. In a recent survey of persons in the former eastern part of Germany, more than 2/3 of respondents said they preferred to keep the October 3 public holiday (commemorating the re-unification of Germany in 1990), while 16% would prefer to have November 9 (the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989) as a public holiday.

Meanwhile the State of Sachsen, a move in underway to make October 9 (the date in 1989 when a crowd of 70.000 participated in demonstrations in Leipzig, leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall a month later) a public holiday at the State level.

Background: This comes in the context of recent proposals that would move the October 3 public holiday to always occur on a Sunday (hence adding to Germany's productivity by effectively axing one public holiday).