4 weeks of vacation in a row legally?

According to the Federal Vacation Law (BUrlG), employees in Germany are entitled to a minimum Vacation period of 24 working days per calendar year based on a six-day workweek. For a five-day workweek, this equates to 20 working days. From this, it can be inferred that four weeks of continuous Vacation are generally possible. However, there is no explicit legal entitlement to four consecutive weeks. It is also not prohibited to take the entire annual Vacation in one go.

Employees should note that the Vacation request must be approved by the employer. The employer can only refuse the Vacation if urgent operational reasons or Vacation requests from other employees that deserve priority for social reasons conflict with it. Therefore, it is advisable to submit the Vacation request early and to reach a mutual agreement with the employer.

In practice, the approval of the Vacation often depends on the operational situation. In some industries, it is more challenging to approve such long continuous Vacation periods, especially if this significantly affects operational safety or work processes. In other cases, the employee may be lucky if the staffing is sufficient or if there is a period when the workload is lower.

In summary, there is no statutory regulation that guarantees a claim to four weeks of continuous vacation. Close coordination with the employer and consideration of operational requirements are therefore indispensable.