Somewhere around mid-June, to late August, if you've been around Germany for while (a decade), you tend to notice that nothing gets done.
A great example is that you might have something that require bureaucratic work at the local town-hall or county administration, and you walk in to discover that Frau such-and-such isn't there. She started her three weeks of summer vacation. So you ask who is filling in for her, and the typical answer is 'no one', and you have to come back after her vacation. So you wait the three weeks, and she's there's there to do phase one of the paperwork but you require a review and stamp from Frau such-and-such next door....only to discover that she's now into the second week of her three week vacation. You just needed three minutes of the first lady and a minute of the second lady...only to discover it requires you to wait five weeks.
Schools and universities work this way. About the only functional office that still works with minimal delay is the post office system. To some degree, the office in each town handling marriage licenses will probably function, but with some 'rookie' filling in for the main clerk.
Years ago, I asked a German about this trend, and he said it wasn't quite this bad in the 1960s or 1970s, but it intensified in the 80s and 90s. Most everyone wants to take three weeks off now. And most refuse to train anyone about their work area because of some personal fear that they might be replaced.
I had this brought up in class today. The fifteen students in this class would like to do their test as the course ends on the last day of June. Well....the instructor laid out the problem....no testing will be scheduled until mid-August. So you might end up with a last week of August, and not see the results until the middle of September. That's a heck of a long way from today (the end of May).
All across Germany, it's the same trend.
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