Record Heat Ignites Discussion about a German Siesta

The word siesta conjures up images of dusty, sun-drenched, small-town streets. The heat of mid-day has put everyone into a torpor, driving them inside to catch some down time behind closed shutters in cool, darkened rooms.

It's not exactly what comes to mind when thinking of Germany, where often cloudy skies and cool temperatures have made a mid-day retreat from the heat not that necessary.

But now that summers appear to be turning Mediterranean even up in Germany, some Social Democratic (SPD) and Green Party politicians began calling last week for the country to import the tradition from the sunny south.

"I am for the introduction of a so-called siesta between 12 and 4 p.m.," said former SPD general secretary Klaus-Uwe Benneter in a newspaper interview. "Here in central Europe, we're going to have to attune ourselves over the long term to a southern European climate."

Green parliamentarian Hans-Christian Ströbele also sees good reason for some mid-day snooze time, calling for a one-and-a-half to two-hour siesta to be put into place.

"We change the clocks every year, why not our work schedules?" he said. "People can take a little nap at noon and then with new energy work longer in the evenings."

While the worst of the recent heat wave appears to be over, according to reports, this July has been the hottest since records began being kept some 100 years ago.

But employers' groups, trade unions and industry associations have thrown cold water on the idea, saying the current work rules are fine the way they are, and anyway, a siesta would only make sense for those whose jobs have them working in the heat and sun.

Still, none of them wants a mandated nap time.