Bridge days and what they cost in leave
A public holiday on a Tuesday or Thursday turns one day of leave into four days off. Which days those are depends on the federal state.
Your entries
What counts is the place of work, not the place of residence.
The movable public holidays depend on Easter Sunday.
Result
Friday, 7. May 2027
Bridge to Ascension Day on 06.05.2027. One day of leave gives 4 days off in a row.
Friday, 28. May 2027
Bridge to Corpus Christi on 27.05.2027. One day of leave gives 4 days off in a row.
The longest chain of the year lies between Ascension Day on 06.05.2027 and Whit Monday: anyone taking the Friday after it and the four working days of the following week pays five days of leave for eleven days off in a row.
There is no entitlement to precisely these days. Under section 7 (1) BUrlG an employee's holiday wishes must be taken into account unless urgent operational needs or the socially more pressing wishes of others stand in the way. On bridge days both are often the case, so the order of requests usually decides.
Calculation
- Public holidays North Rhine-Westphalia 2027: 11, of which 4 at the weekend
- Bridge day when a public holiday falls on a Tuesday: the Monday before
- Bridge day when a public holiday falls on a Thursday: the Friday after
- 2 days of leave × 4 = 8 days off
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How it is calculated
The calculator covers the basic statutory rules. Collective agreements, works agreements and employment contracts may contain more favourable arrangements, and for a specific case it is better to ask someone with a licence to practise.
The rule behind the bridge
A statutory public holiday on a Tuesday turns the Monday before it into a bridge, one on a Thursday the Friday after it. In both cases one day of leave produces four consecutive days off, because the weekend follows directly.
Public holidays on a Wednesday have no bridge: anyone wanting the week off pays four days of leave for nine days off. Public holidays on a Monday or Friday need no bridge, they extend the weekend by themselves.
Public holidays falling on a Saturday or Sunday are simply lost. German law knows no substitute day, unlike, for instance, the United Kingdom.
Why the federal state decides
Nine public holidays apply nationwide; everything beyond that is governed by the public holiday act of the respective state. Corpus Christi always falls on a Thursday and is therefore a guaranteed bridge day in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland; in the other states it does not exist.
What counts is the place of work, not the place of residence and not the company's registered office. Anyone working from home in another state goes by the state in which they actually work.
What the business gets to say about it
A leave request is not a self-service right: under section 7(1) BUrlG, employees' wishes have to be taken into account unless urgent operational reasons or the leave wishes of other employees with social priority stand against them. On bridge days in particular, both are often the case.
Planning early therefore wins twice over: the days are known as soon as the year is set, and the request is in ahead of everyone else's.
To read and take along
- Calculating the working days in a period
- How long pay continues in case of illness
- Maternity protection: the start and end of the protection period
- Overtime calculator
- Calculating leave entitlement
- Break calculator
- Calculating working time, day by day and for the week
- Calculating the hourly rate from a monthly salary
- How many hours a mini-job allows
- Tax-free premiums for night, Sunday and public holiday work
- Maximum working time and the balancing period
- Remaining leave and payment in lieu on departure
- Leave when the number of working days changes
Frequently asked questions
What we get asked about this most often.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
Send us a messageWhat is a bridge day?
A single working day between a public holiday and the weekend. If the holiday falls on a Tuesday, the Monday before is the bridge; if it falls on a Thursday, the Friday after. One day of leave turns into four days off.
How many bridge days are there in a year?
That changes every year, because Easter and the holidays depending on it move. Two to five per federal state is typical. The calculator shows them for 2026, 2027 and 2028 with the date and the weekday.
Am I entitled to leave on a bridge day?
There is no entitlement to that exact day. Section 7(1) BUrlG requires leave wishes to be taken into account but allows urgent operational reasons and the priority of other people's socially more pressing wishes. In practice the order of requests and a fair rule at the workplace decide it.
Does a public holiday during leave count as a day of leave?
No. A statutory public holiday is not a working day within the meaning of section 3 BUrlG and is not counted. Anyone taking a week containing a public holiday uses four days of leave instead of five.
Is the week between Ascension Day and Whitsun worth it?
Ascension Day is always a Thursday, Whit Monday always a Monday, and there are eleven days in between. Anyone taking the Friday after Ascension Day and the four days of the following week pays five days of leave for eleven days off. After the individual bridge days, that is the best ratio of the year.
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