Archive
Press Releases
Keeping Sunday Holy: Making Space for Reflection about Life
Statement by the chairperson of the EKD-Council before the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe
June 23, 2009
Today, Bishop Wolfgang Huber, chairperson of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), stated before the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe his strong opposition to longer shop opening hours on Sunday, as have been practiced in Berlin since November 2006.
At the hearing on the constitutional complaint filed by the Protestant and Catholic churches of Berlin challenging business hours currently in force in the nation's capital, Huber called for maintaining Sunday as a "day of collective rest," allowing space for reflecting on "what is meaningful in life." The Council chairperson and bishop of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg and the Silesian Oberlausitz emphatically insisted that Sunday in its entirety must remain outside the day-to-day routine and "be a day of its own, entirely independent of weekday occupations." Sunday, Huber continued, brings home the fact that "people are not defined only by work and performance."
The constitutional complaint brought by the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg and the Silesian Oberlausitz and the Catholic diocese of Berlin was motivated by the new opening hours in Berlin shops. Since November 17, 2006 shops in the federal capital may open on ten Sundays or official holidays a year, including the four Sundays of Advent.
The churches consider this law to be unconstitutional and base their arguments on Article 140 of the German constitution which protects Sundays and public holidays. This article was taken directly from Article 139 of the 1919 Weimar constitution which states, "Sundays and the public holidays recognized by the State shall remain legally protected as days of rest from work and of spiritual edification."
Hanover, June 23, 2009
Press Office of the EKD
Reinhard Mawick