Information about the local time of the country is important both for tourists using different timetables and for business partners of German residents. The Germans are widely known for their punctuality, so any inaccuracies can greatly affect your reputation in their eyes. Accordingly, with any, even friendly, interaction, you need to clearly know the time of the meeting.
The time zone is the same throughout Germany. And in Berlin, located in the east of the country, and in Cologne, located in the west. But even though there is a long distance of 480 km in a straight line between these cities, which corresponds to a six-hour drive, the difference in sunrise is only about 20 minutes.
GMT
A time zone is a specific territory, which includes, as a rule, several states, on which a specific official time is set in accordance with international agreements.
Greenwich Mean Time (not to be confused with London!) is used as universal, worldwide. For him there is no division into winter and summer periods, it is permanent. The main (winter) time zone of Germany is UTC + 01: 00, that is, atan hour earlier than on the territory of the zero meridian, since this country is located to the east. This means that at exactly 10 o'clock GMT in Germany it will already be 11:00. In summer, the difference is greater: the time will be UTC + 02:00, that is, 2 hours earlier.
In the German time zone are, for example, such European countries as Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Hungary, Gibr altar, Denmark, Italy, France, Czech Republic, Sweden and so on. As well as African Algeria, Gabon, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Namibia, Nigeria and others.
Change to summer and winter time
It is also important to remember about the seasonal change of time in Germany. What time zone the country is in directly depends on the period of the year.
Daylight saving time occurs at 2:00 am on the last Sunday in March. On March 25, 2018, residents of the country will move their clocks forward one hour. For winter (official) time, the transfer is carried out at 3:00 a.m. until noon on the last Sunday in October. On 2018-28-10 in Germany, the hands will move back an hour.
Such actions are justified by saving electricity during daylight hours. The practice of daylight saving time is widespread in almost all countries of Europe and North America, but is rarely used in South America, Africa and Australia.
Time difference with Russia
German time zone is the same as Russiaonly in Kaliningrad and only in summer. In winter, the time difference is set at 1 hour. With Moscow, the difference is two hours in winter and one in summer. The flight between the capitals of Russia and Germany lasts an average of 2:45 at a distance of 1601 km. So, flying from Moscow to Berlin in winter, you will lose only 45 minutes due to different time zones. And when you return, the loss will look much more significant - almost 5 hours!
Time difference between Germany and Russian cities:
| City | Difference in winter, hours | Difference in summer, hours |
| Kaliningrad | -1 | 0 |
| Moscow | -2 | -1 |
| Samara | -3 | -2 |
| Yekaterinburg | -4 | -4 |
| Omsk | -5 | -4 |
| Krasnoyarsk | -6 | -5 |
| Irkutsk | -7 | -6 |
| Yakutsk | -8 | -7 |
| Vladivostok | -9 | -8 |
| Severo-Kurilsk | -10 | -9 |
| Kamchatka | -11 | -10 |
Thus, knowing the time zone of Germany will maintain a high reputation, as well as make life much easier for you and your German partners!
