German Autumn Holidays 2026: Eleven States Fly at the Same Time in the Week of 19 October
5 min read
Frankfurt Airport handled 221,000 passengers on 5 October 2025. Second-busiest single day of the entire year, according to Fraport. No public holiday, no strike. Just three federal states starting their school break on the same morning.
This year gets tighter. Line up the German autumn holidays 2026 for all 16 states and one week jumps straight out: from 19 to 24 October, eleven of the 16 states are on holiday at the same time. That includes North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state, plus Berlin, Brandenburg and Hamburg.
That figure is our own reading of the official holiday calendar published by the Kultusministerkonferenz. Feel free to count it yourself.
German Autumn Holidays 2026: Which States Overlap
The German autumn holidays 2026 split into three waves, and the middle one is the fat one.
| Holiday window | Federal states |
|---|---|
| 5 to 16/17 October | Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland |
| 12 to 24 October | Bremen, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia |
| 15 to 24 October | Mecklenburg-Vorpommern |
| 17 to 31 October | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| 19 to 30/31 October | Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Saxony-Anhalt |
| 26 to 30 October | Baden-Württemberg |
| 2 to 6 November | Bavaria |
Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland go first on 5 October, as the ADAC lists them. Bavaria doesn't start until 2 November and pretty much has the tail of autumn to itself.
The jam sits in between. From 19 October, most of the country is travelling in parallel.
What eleven states do to an airport
There are numbers from last year for this. Berlin Brandenburg Airport expected roughly 275,000 passengers over the opening weekend of the 2025 autumn break alone, and 1.4 million across the full period.
The trend points up, right into the German autumn holidays 2026: the German Airports Association ADV forecasts 225 million passengers nationwide for 2026, up 4.2 percent on last year.
For you that mostly means longer queues at bag drop, and a baggage belt that takes noticeably longer at the other end.
The quietest moment isn't the start of a break, it's the middle of one. If your dates are flexible, midweek beats the first or last weekend.
German Autumn Holidays 2026: How to Avoid the Baggage Mess
Munich Airport explicitly tells travellers during the German autumn holidays 2026 to prepare properly. Its top asks:
Check in online or the evening before, not at the counter.
Keep hand luggage lean. Liquids and electronics go on top, not under three layers of jumpers.
Use self bag drop where it exists. On a holiday Friday the machine queue is usually the shorter one.
Our overview of carry-on luggage dimensions for 2026 has the current limits per airline.
Weigh the case before you leave the house
Excess baggage runs €50 and up at the desk, depending on the airline. And on a holiday Friday there's a queue behind you while you repack on the floor. A Freetoo Digitale Gepäckwaage, Tragbare Hängewaage bis 50 kg does the job in ten seconds at home, where you can still take something out in peace. More cases in our carry-on luggage test 2026.
Freetoo Digitale Gepäckwaage, Tragbare Hängewaage bis 50 kg
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Put a tracker in the suitcase
When eleven states travel at once, baggage systems run at their limit too. A ATUVOS Air Tag Schlüsselfinder 4er Pack, Smart Tracker kompatibel mit Apple Wo ist? App (nur iOS) won't bring your case back, but your phone shows whether it's still in Düsseldorf or already sitting in Palma. That beats guessing at the lost-and-found desk.
Whether every airline treats that kind of location data the same way, honestly, we don't know.
And if you're booking a cheap fare, read the baggage rules first. At Ryanair a few centimetres at the gate turn into a three-digit fee, which we get into in our Ryanair hand luggage tricks.
19 October 2026 falls on a Monday, right in the middle of the busiest week of the German autumn holidays 2026. Fly the weekend before and you share the terminal with half of Germany. Fly a week later and you don't.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which German states have autumn holidays at the same time in 2026?
From 19 to 24 October 2026, eleven of the 16 federal states are on autumn break simultaneously: Bremen, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg and Saxony-Anhalt.
Which German state starts its autumn holidays first in 2026?
Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland go first on 5 October 2026. Hesse is off until 17 October, the other two until 16 October. Bavaria is last, with a break from 2 to 6 November.
When are the 2026 autumn holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia?
North Rhine-Westphalia has autumn holidays from 17 to 31 October 2026. That puts NRW right across the overlap week of 19 to 24 October, when ten further states are off as well.
When are German airports quietest during the autumn break?
The worst days are the first and last weekend of any state's break. Midweek, in the middle of a holiday period, is calmer. Frankfurt's first holiday day in 2025 was the second-busiest day of the whole year.
How do I avoid baggage problems during the German autumn holidays 2026?
Check in online or the evening before, use self bag drop, keep hand luggage lean and pack liquids where you can reach them. Weighing the case at home saves excess-baggage fees, and a Bluetooth tracker helps if your bag doesn't make the flight.
