Clocks Fall Back: Germany Switches to Winter Time on the Earliest Possible Sunday — Last Seen in 2020

Germany switched from Central European Summer Time to Central European Time — commonly called winter time — in the early hours of Sunday, October 25, 2026. Clocks moved back from 3 a.m. to 2 a.m., meaning the two-to-three o'clock window occurred twice and most people gained an extra hour of sleep. Night-shift workers such as nurses and security guards, however, had to work one additional hour that night. Under EU rules, summer time always ends on the last Sunday in October, a date that falls somewhere between the 25th and the 31st. This year that last Sunday landed on October 25 — the earliest it can possibly arrive. The same situation last occurred in 2020, and the next time will not be until 2037. The early date also means the 2026 summer time period was slightly shorter than usual: it ran from March 29 to October 25, totalling 210 days. In 2027, summer time will run from March 28 all the way to October 31 — 217 days, or a full week more. The change is already felt at dusk: the sun set in Berlin at 4:50 p.m. on October 25, with Görlitz, in Germany's far east, going dark even earlier at 4:46 p.m. By contrast, on the same date in 2027 — still under summer time — Berlin will stay light until 5:50 p.m. EU plans to end the twice-yearly clock change remain deadlocked, as member states cannot agree on a permanent time zone. A European Commission study is expected to deliver findings by the end of 2026. Until then, clocks will spring forward again on March 28, 2027.