With a "stolen hour", Germany and most European countries started the so-called summer time again. The clocks were put forward from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Sunday night. "Everything worked technically flawlessly this spring," Dirk Piester from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig told the German Press Agency. The authority in Lower Saxony is responsible for the dissemination of legal time in Germany.

The double turning of the hands is uniformly regulated in the EU member states. The aim of the changeover, reintroduced in 1980, is to be able to make better use of daylight and thereby save energy. Opponents repeatedly doubt the energy-saving effect and in surveys many people regularly speak out in favor of abolishing it.

End of the time change in sight?

According to a current survey by the Yougov research institute, 75 percent of Germans are in favor of an end to double clock turning. Only 18 percent want to diligently continue to move forward and backward. A Forsa survey commissioned by DAK-Gesundheit showed that a quarter of Germans had health problems after the time change.

The end of the changeover seemed to be sealed, above all by statements by ex-Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker: he had already announced it in 2018. The majority of the members of the European Parliament have already voted for an end. However, the project seems to be on hold at the moment. "At least we can't see any development," said PTB spokesman Piester. So it is certain that daylight saving time will end again on October 29, 2023.

Even then, the experts from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig will take care of the changeover. It ensures that radio-controlled clocks, station clocks and many industrial clocks are supplied with the legal time via a long-wave transmitter called "DCF77" in Mainflingen near Frankfurt/Main.