Are German Christmas markets open on Sunday?

Yes, German Christmas markets open on Sundays, and every German market in our files that is running on an Advent Sunday in 2026 opens that day, on 29 November and on 6, 13 and 20 December. In Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia the state's law keeps markets closed on Sunday mornings, and none of the markets we cover in either state opens before 11:00. The exceptions are the two Sundays before Advent. Volkstrauertag falls on 15 November and Totensonntag on 22 November in 2026, and on Totensonntag eleven of the eighteen German markets already open close for the whole day.

We built this from each market's 2026 hours, read from the organizer or the tourism board on 10 October 2026, and from our file of state holiday laws, which names the statute behind every rule. The open-or-closed answers come from the season engine that runs the what's open on a date page.

Market	State	Advent Sunday hours	Totensonntag, 22 Nov
Aachen Christmas Market	North Rhine-Westphalia	11:00–21:00	Open 18:00–21:00 only
Bonn Christmas Market	North Rhine-Westphalia	12:00–21:00	Closed all day
Cologne Cathedral Christmas Market	North Rhine-Westphalia	11:00–21:00	Closed all day
Cologne Harbour Christmas Market	North Rhine-Westphalia	11:00–21:00	Open 18:00–21:00 only
Dusseldorf Christmas Markets	North Rhine-Westphalia	11:00–20:00	Closed all day
Freiburg Christmas Market	Baden-Württemberg	11:30–19:30	Closed all day
Heidelberg Christmas Market	Baden-Württemberg	11:00–21:00	Not open yet (opens 23 Nov)
Stuttgart Christmas Market	Baden-Württemberg	11:00–21:00	Not open yet (opens 25 Nov)
Munich Christkindlmarkt	Bavaria	10:00–20:00	Closed all day
Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt	Bavaria	10:00–21:00	Not open yet (opens 27 Nov)
Wurzburg Christmas Market	Bavaria	11:00–20:30	Not open yet (opens 27 Nov)
Dresden Striezelmarkt	Saxony	10:00–21:00	Not open yet (opens 25 Nov)
Leipzig Christmas Market	Saxony	11:00–21:00	Not open yet (opens 24 Nov)
Frankfurt Christmas Market	Hesse	11:00–21:00	Not open yet (opens 23 Nov)
Wiesbaden Sternschnuppenmarkt	Hesse	12:00–21:00	Not open yet (opens 24 Nov)
Christmas Market at Charlottenburg Palace	Berlin	12:00–22:00	Not open yet (opens 23 Nov)
WeihnachtsZauber Gendarmenmarkt	Berlin	12:00–22:00	Not open yet (opens 23 Nov)
Koblenz Christmas Market	Rhineland-Palatinate	11:00–20:00	No closure listed in its file
Mainz Christmas Market	Rhineland-Palatinate	11:00–20:30	Not open yet (opens 26 Nov)
Trier Christmas Market	Rhineland-Palatinate	11:00–20:00	Closed all day

Are German Christmas markets open on Advent Sundays?

They are. None of the 65 German markets in our files lists a closure on an Advent Sunday inside its run. Some open on only a few days a week, so Sunday becomes one of their main days. The Monschau Christmas Market trades from 11:00 to 20:00 on its Sundays, and the Ravenna Gorge Christmas Market opens from 14:00 to 21:00 with timed tickets.

The start time depends on the state. Baden-Württemberg's FTG § 7 keeps trade fairs and markets (Messen und Märkte) closed until 11:00 on a Sunday, and the Freiburg Christmas Market waits until 11:30. North Rhine-Westphalia lets markets open only after the main church service, and our file of laws puts that service between 06:00 and 11:00. Saarland's law also sets 11:00, though we have no Saarland market in our files. In Bavaria and Saxony our files show several big markets opening at 10:00 on Sundays: the Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt, the Munich Christkindlmarkt, the Augsburg Christkindlesmarkt and the Dresden Striezelmarkt.

Some markets close earlier on a Sunday than on a Saturday. Munich's stalls shut at 20:00 on Sundays and 21:00 the rest of the week, and Freiburg closes at 19:30. Shops keep their own rules. Bautzen opens its old-town shops on two Advent Sundays, and Freiberg's old-town shops open on 29 November and 13 December.

What happens on Totensonntag, 22 November 2026?

Totensonntag means Sunday of the dead, and every German state protects it with a ban on public events that break the day's quiet. Eighteen German markets in our files have opened by then. Eleven close all day: the Cologne Cathedral Christmas Market, the Markt der Engel (Cologne), the Bonn Christmas Market, the Dusseldorf Christmas Markets, the Munich Christkindlmarkt, the Munich Medieval Christmas Market, the Freiburg Christmas Market, the Rothenburg Reiterlesmarkt, the Regensburg Romantic Christmas Market at Thurn und Taxis Palace, the Trier Christmas Market and the Bernkastel-Kues Christmas Market.

Two open in the evening. North Rhine-Westphalia's ban on markets runs from 05:00 to 18:00 that day, and both the Aachen Christmas Market and the Cologne Harbour Christmas Market trade from 18:00 to 21:00.

Five files list no closure that day, so our what's open answer shows them open, and you should check the organizer's own page in the week before. The Koblenz Christmas Market lists only its usual Sunday hours, 11:00 to 20:00. The Mosel Wine Christmas Market (Traben-Trarbach) opens on weekends and hasn't posted hours. The other three are projected runs: the CentrO Christmas Market (Oberhausen), the Christmas Market at the Chinese Tower and the Munich Residenz Christmas Village. The Residenz file's own note says that market closed on Totensonntag in 2025.

What happens on Volkstrauertag, 15 November?

Volkstrauertag means national day of mourning, and it falls two Sundays before Advent, on 15 November in 2026. Only two German markets in our files have opened by then. The Cologne Harbour Christmas Market opens from 13:00 to 21:00 that day, because North Rhine-Westphalia bans markets from 05:00 to 13:00 and keeps entertainment and dancing banned until 18:00. The CentrO Christmas Market (Oberhausen) has a projected run and no published hours, and sits under the same state law. Across the border, the Vienna Christmas Market at Rathausplatz and the other Viennese markets that have opened by then trade as usual that Sunday.

What does each state's law say?

Each state writes its own holiday law, so the hours of the ban change at the border. The table gives the ban on public events on each of the two Sundays, whether the statute names markets in that ban, and how we read the text. Times are local.

State	Volkstrauertag, 15 Nov	Totensonntag, 22 Nov	Markets named in the ban	Statute	How we read it
North Rhine-Westphalia	05:00–13:00	05:00–18:00	Yes	Feiertagsgesetz NW §§ 5–7, 10	Official statute
Bavaria	02:00–24:00	02:00–24:00	No	FTG Art. 3, 5	Official statute
Baden-Württemberg	No entry	05:00–24:00	No	FTG §§ 7, 8, 10	Secondary source
Berlin	04:00–21:00	04:00–21:00	No	Feiertagsschutz-Verordnung § 4	Secondary source
Brandenburg	04:00–24:00	04:00–24:00	No	FTG §§ 5, 6, 8	Official statute
Bremen	06:00–17:00	06:00–17:00	No	Sonn-, Gedenk- und Feiertagsgesetz § 6	Secondary source
Hamburg	06:00–15:00	06:00–17:00	No	Feiertagsschutzverordnung § 4; Verordnung über den Volkstrauertag	Secondary source
Hesse	04:00–24:00	04:00–24:00	No	HFeiertagsG §§ 8, 10; HLöG § 6	Secondary source
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	04:00–24:00	04:00–24:00	No	FTG M-V §§ 5, 6	Secondary source
Lower Saxony	All day	All day	No	NFeiertagsG §§ 6, 9, 14	Copy of the statute
Rhineland-Palatinate	04:00–24:00	04:00–24:00	No	LFtG §§ 6–8, 10	Secondary source
Saarland	04:00–24:00	04:00–24:00	No	SFG §§ 7–10, 12	Secondary source; the text seen has a 2020 sunset clause
Saxony	03:00–24:00	03:00–24:00	No	SächsSFG §§ 5–7	Official statute
Saxony-Anhalt	05:00–16:00	05:00–24:00	No	FeiertG LSA § 5 (amended 4 May 2026)	Copy of the statute
Schleswig-Holstein	06:00–20:00	06:00–20:00	No	SFTG § 6	Secondary source
Thuringia	03:00–24:00	03:00–24:00	No	ThürFGtG § 6	Copy of the statute

North Rhine-Westphalia's statute names markets, so the markets themselves are banned for those hours. The other states leave markets out of the wording. That puts them under the general ban on public events that break the day's solemn character, and in practice the organizer's own hours decide. In Bavaria, where the FTG doesn't name markets, the Munich Christkindlmarkt and the Rothenburg Reiterlesmarkt close all day on Totensonntag.

Bavaria and Saarland also protect Buß- und Bettag on Wednesday 18 November, and Saxony keeps it as a public holiday with a ban from 03:00. No Saxon market in our files has opened by then. Our file has no Volkstrauertag ban for Baden-Württemberg, and its source there is secondary, so treat that blank as unchecked.

Several states let an authority grant exemptions. In North Rhine-Westphalia the Bezirksregierung decides under § 10, and a market with no entertainment character counts as no serious impairment of the day. Bavarian municipalities can grant one under Art. 5. In Berlin the request goes to the district Ordnungsamt (FSchVO § 5), and Lower Saxony's § 14 lets a municipality allow up to four Spezialmärkte a year.

How sure is each reading?

We mark each statute by the kind of text we read, and the label tells you how much weight to put on it.

Label	What we read	How far to trust it
Official statute	The law on the state's own legal portal	The current text as the state publishes it
Copy of the statute	The statute's wording in a copy held elsewhere, such as a church law archive or a ministry report	The wording is the law's, and a later amendment could be missing
Secondary source	A page that quotes or summarizes the law	Good for the shape of the rule, and worth checking against the statute before you plan a trip around it

The official text backs four German states: North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Brandenburg and Saxony. Copies cover Lower Saxony and Thuringia, plus Saxony-Anhalt, whose law was amended on 4 May 2026, and Austria's opening-hours law. Baden-Württemberg, Berlin and seven more states rest on secondary sources. Saarland is the weakest case, because the text we saw carries a sunset clause for 2020 and we couldn't confirm the current version.

Do Austria and Switzerland close markets on these Sundays?

Austria has no matching ban in our file. Its Öffnungszeitengesetz 2003 exempts Marktverkehr, which means market trading, so each town's market rules decide, and Austrian markets such as the Vienna Christmas Market at Rathausplatz trade on 22 November. In Basel-Stadt, shops may open from 13:00 to 18:00 on 13 and 20 December 2026, two of the Advent Sundays.

Quick answers

Are German Christmas markets open on Sunday?

Yes. German Christmas markets open on all four Advent Sundays in 2026, 29 November and 6, 13 and 20 December. In Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia they open at 11:00 or later on Sundays because state law keeps them shut in the morning.

Are German Christmas markets open on Totensonntag 2026?

Most German Christmas markets that have opened by Totensonntag, 22 November 2026, close for the day. Eleven of the eighteen in our files close all day, and the Aachen Christmas Market and the Cologne Harbour Christmas Market open only from 18:00 to 21:00.

Are the Cologne Christmas markets open on Sunday 22 November 2026?

The Cologne Cathedral Christmas Market and the Markt der Engel are closed all day on Sunday 22 November 2026, which is Totensonntag. The Cologne Harbour Christmas Market opens from 18:00 to 21:00, and Heinzels Wintermarchen hasn't opened yet.

What time do German Christmas markets open on Sundays?

German Christmas markets in our files open between 10:00 and 12:00 on Sundays, and a few start at 14:00. Nuremberg, Augsburg, Munich's Christkindlmarkt and Dresden's Striezelmarkt start at 10:00, and in Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia no market we cover opens before 11:00.

Are German Christmas markets open on Volkstrauertag?

Only two German Christmas markets in our files have opened by Volkstrauertag, 15 November 2026. The Cologne Harbour Christmas Market opens that day from 13:00, after North Rhine-Westphalia's market ban from 05:00 to 13:00, and the CentrO Christmas Market in Oberhausen has a projected run with no hours published.