Explained in a child-friendly way: why do we change the clock?
We turn the clock back twice a year: in autumn the clock is put back one hour, in spring it is put forward one hour. But why are we doing this at all? In this article, we explain what summer and winter time is all about in a child-friendly way.
Kids just love to ask us questions, literally. And it seems that the dear little ones are most inquisitive when we unfortunately don’t have the answer ready. So that you don’t have to do that – and you can quench your child’s thirst for knowledge – we’ll tell you at this point: Why do we actually change the clock?
Why is there the time change?
The time change was introduced in Germany in 1980. One of the reasons why the hour hand turned was the oil crisis in 1973. During this oil crisis, oil-exporting countries throttled oil production in order to create an artificial shortage of resources and to put political pressure on predominantly Western industrial nations, such as Germany. Since there was only little oil, factories could no longer produce as usual, the streets remained empty and even schools could not be heated properly.
On the last Sunday in March the clock is put forward from 2am to 3am, on the last Sunday in October the clock is put back from 3am to 2am.
This mnemonic helps to remember:
In the spring we put the garden furniture in front of the door.
In the fall we put them back in the shed.
The oil crisis scared people and they feared that one day they would face a major energy problem. That’s why they wanted to be economical and make better use of their oil reserves in the future. This gave rise to the idea of setting the clock forward or back one hour in order to make better use of the daylight. Other neighboring countries already had this arrangement and Germany decided to follow suit.
Switching from winter time to summer time: does it make sense?
Whether the idea from back then was really that good – and whether as much was saved as hoped – is now strongly doubted. There are numerous studies that show that heating costs rise significantly in the mornings during the somewhat cooler summer months. After all, you have to start heating up an hour earlier if you don’t want to sit freezing at the breakfast table.
The time change also makes a lot of demands on many people: they often suffer from poor concentration, loss of appetite or even health problems. So it’s not just a whining to have to get up an hour earlier in the summer! 😉 For these reasons, the EU (European Union) is currently considering whether the time change should not be abolished again.