BERLIN – Daylight Saving Time (DST) will end across Europe on the morning of Sunday, October 26th, marking the annual transition to standard Winter Time. At 3:00 AM, clocks will be set back by one hour to 2:00 AM, resulting in the longest night of the year.
This time change, which occurs on the last Sunday of October each year, is managed by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Germany’s national metrology institute in Braunschweig. Automated timepieces are synchronised using radio signals transmitted from a tower located in Frankfurt.
The process of adjusting clocks for DST began in Germany in 1980 and has since been adopted by European Union member states. The change aims to harmonise time across the EU with Central European Time (CET) and is fundamentally based on maximizing daylight during the colder months.
A practical consequence of the time change affects night workers: those on duty when the clocks fall back will work an extra hour, which is compensated as overtime pay.
The reverse change to Summer Time (DST) occurs on the last Sunday of March, when clocks are moved forward by one hour. Conversely, night workers on the night of the Summer Time change work one hour less.
Automated systems handle the time-change coordination for transport services, particularly for trains operating overnight. Following the switch to Winter Time, the time difference between German Time (CET) and Indian Standard Time (IST) will be four and a half hours (IST is ahead). During Summer Time, the difference is three and a half hours.
It is noted that European countries like the UK and Ireland remain one hour behind German Time. The next transition back to Summer Time is scheduled for March 29, 2026.
Uncertain Future of DST: Despite the scheduled change, the future of the DST system in Europe remains undecided. Although the European Union Parliament voted in 2021 to abolish the biannual time change, a final decision on the matter is still pending and currently remains uncertain.
