Germany uses Central European Time (Mitteleuropäische Zeit, MEZ; UTC+01:00) and Central European Summer Time (Mitteleuropäische Sommerzeit, MESZ; UTC+02:00). Daylight saving time is observed from the last Sunday in March (02:00 CET) to the last Sunday in October (03:00 CEST). The doubled hour during the switch back to standard time is named 2A (02:00 to 03:00 CEST) and 2B (02:00 to 03:00 CET).
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Germany has the single tz database zone "Europe/Berlin", although in 1945, the Trizone did not follow Berlin's switch to midsummer time.
Additionally, Germany has been politically divided into East Germany and West Germany even after the start of the unix epoch, which is the date from which on the tz database wants to record correct information. The rule "every country gets its one zone" seems not to be observed for Germany before re-unification.[1]
Daylight saving time was first introduced during World War I by the German Empire in the years 1916 to 1918. After the end of the war and the proclamation of the Weimar Republic in November 1918, daylight saving time ceased to be observed in peace time. It was then introduced and abolished several times. In 1996, daylight saving time was harmonized throughout the European Union by Directive 2000/84/EC, which moved the end of DST to the last Sunday in October.
In 1980 the exclave Büsingen did not use DST.[2]
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