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Thirty days off, and they expect you to take them
German law guarantees a minimum of twenty paid holiday days on a five-day week, and most full-time contracts offer thirty — six full weeks, on top of nine to thirteen public holidays depending on the state. Crucially, the culture expects you to use them. Leaving leave unclaimed is not read as dedication, and a manager may well tell you to book something. Holidays are typically taken in long blocks rather than scattered days, and the whole country half-empties in the summer school holidays, which are staggered state by state precisely to stop the motorways seizing up. Alongside this sit the working-time rules from Lesson 21 and the Krankschreibung from Lesson 13 — sick days do not come out of holiday, and falling ill during your holiday means those days can be given back to you if you produce a certificate. When weighing up two job offers, Germans will genuinely compare the holiday allowance, the commute and the Betriebsklima — the working atmosphere — alongside the salary, and mentioning any of them in an interview is normal.