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Europe/Berlin time zone

1:10PMCET

CETUTC+1+6 h vs New York (you)

About Europe/Berlin

Europe/Berlin is the IANA time zone for most of Germany in Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Svalbard and Jan Mayen. It currently keeps Central European Standard Time (CET, UTC+1) in winter and Central European Summer Time (CEST, UTC+2) in summer.

The zone serves 5 countries or territories because their clocks have agreed since 1970; tzdata lists them together in zone1970.tab. That says nothing about borders or sovereignty, as the file’s header points out.

Its principal location is Berlin at 52.50° N, 13.37° E.

Abbreviations in use: CET, CEST. Offset page: UTC+1.

Rule for future years (POSIX TZ string)

CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3

The standard time is called CET and is UTC+1. POSIX writes the offset with the opposite sign (west of Greenwich is positive), which is why the string says "-1". Daylight saving time is called CEST and is UTC+2. It starts on the last Sunday of March at 02:00 and ends on the last Sunday of October at 03:00, local time. Software that has no full tzdata copy, such as many embedded devices, can use this string directly as the TZ environment variable.

Upcoming transitions

Computed from tzdata 2026f; local times are read on the clock just before each change.

History of Europe/Berlin since 1970

The record starts with local mean time (UTC+0:53), which ended on March 31, 1893. The first daylight saving time in the record is in 1916.

YearsClocksAbbreviations
1970–1979UTC+1 all yearCET
1980 onwardUTC+1 in winter, UTC+2 in summerCET, CEST

Before 1970

27 offset changes before 1970 in the record; the first 12 and the last 12:

tzdata commits to accuracy from 1970 for every zone (zone1970.tab); earlier entries are historical research and may be incomplete.

Aliases and zones with the same clock

These older or country-specific IDs are links to Europe/Berlin in tzdata. Their pages redirect here: Arctic/Longyearbyen, Atlantic/Jan_Mayen, Europe/Copenhagen, Europe/Oslo, Europe/Stockholm.

Other zones that keep exactly the same time under the current rules (but have a different history): Africa/Ceuta, Europe/Andorra, Europe/Belgrade, Europe/Brussels, Europe/Budapest, Europe/Gibraltar, Europe/Madrid, Europe/Malta, Europe/Paris, Europe/Prague, Europe/Rome, Europe/Tirane.

Places on Europe/Berlin

Convert Berlin time

Tip: Alt+↑/↓ steps the time by 15 minutes (Shift: one hour). The link keeps the date, time and direction.

Using Europe/Berlin in code

Every major platform reads the same IANA ID. Store instants in UTC and convert with the ID at display time; never store a fixed offset for a place that has daylight saving time.

// JavaScript
new Date().toLocaleString('en-US', { timeZone: 'Europe/Berlin' })

# Python 3.9+
from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
from datetime import datetime
datetime.now(ZoneInfo('Europe/Berlin'))

// Java
java.time.ZonedDateTime.now(java.time.ZoneId.of("Europe/Berlin"))

// Go
loc, _ := time.LoadLocation("Europe/Berlin")
time.Now().In(loc)

-- PostgreSQL
SELECT now() AT TIME ZONE 'Europe/Berlin';

# Shell
TZ='Europe/Berlin' date

Platforms ship their own copy of tzdata and update it on their own schedule. After a rule change, outputs can differ until the platform updates; this page uses tzdata 2026f.

Questions

What is the UTC offset of Europe/Berlin?
UTC+1 in winter and UTC+2 in summer (daylight saving time from the last Sunday of March at 2:00 AM to the last Sunday of October at 3:00 AM).
Does Europe/Berlin observe daylight saving time?
Yes: clocks move one hour forward on the last Sunday of March at 2:00 AM and back on the last Sunday of October at 3:00 AM.
Is Arctic/Longyearbyen the same as Europe/Berlin?
Yes. Arctic/Longyearbyen, Atlantic/Jan_Mayen, Europe/Copenhagen, Europe/Oslo and Europe/Stockholm are a link (alias) to Europe/Berlin in tzdata and give the same time since 1970. They remain valid IDs.
Which countries use Europe/Berlin?
Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Svalbard and Jan Mayen, according to zone1970.tab in tzdata.

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