I don't know why the BeNeLux countries, France and Spain -- all of which would really belong into the GMT+0 timezone, e.g. British Time -- adopted MEZ/CET
For France, it's most probably not to adopt the same time zone as the Perfid Albion. In 1795, France had established the Bureau des Longitudes to be able to compete with the British Navy on the world's seas.
And for the same reason Europe is developping Galileo in order not to depend on the US GPS system.
Maybe dMun could do a diary on marine clocks... "Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
More trains went to central europe then to England... A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
We lack solid data here. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
By the way, I am calling Migeru out of the woodworks. Could it be that Spain only adopted CET when joining the EU? I know it was so with Portugal, which moved back since to Western European (British) Time when everyone felt awful in the morning.
If we are here, can you (A swedish kind of death) find me anything about the Swedish adoption of a timezone? My only reference was a sentence in a railway history book. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
They say Sweden adopted CET only in 1900 -- so maybe in 1888, they adopted something else, like GMT+0?
The article writes 1884 for all ex-Yugoslav countries, which I am 100% certain is erroneous. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Vichy France's adaptation to a German-imposed summer timetable (Daylight Savings Time) offers Philippe Burrin an apt metaphor for French life under German occupation.
Maybe the reviewer wasn't aware of the original timezone difference, with this emphasis on summer time? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
In 1945 France chose GMT + 1 as its time, winter and summer. In 1975, Giscard d'Estaing brought summer time back in response to the first oil shock. Since then France has been on GMT + 1 in winter, GMT + 2 in summer.
What changes have there been to German time over that period? (C20?) Didn't West Germany also bring back summer time in the late '70s?
That is unless Finland (in union with Russia) had the GMT-system. And that delightful wikipedia-article linked to one with Eastern European Time (EET) which informed me that Finland adopted it in 1921 (independence). However I can not find what system Finland used previous to independence. Thinking about it, Sweden only had one rail-connection to Finland anyway so it was not that hard to set clocks.
In the long run, the strong business and cultural connections with Germany probably made adopting German time sensible. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
Well, that was true for the USA, too, what's more, the Central European network wasn't connected to the British network until the Eurotunnel -- but was connected to the French and Dutch when they still had non-GMT-plus-whole-hour times -- yet still adopted it. And the very first national time, that of New Zealand from 2 November 1868, was GMT+11h30m.
But, I googled around a bit more, and found this:
On January 1, 1879 a standard time zone was introduced for the entire of Sweden. Swedish standard time was set accordingly to the meridian half way between Stockholm on the east coast and Göteborg on the west coast.
Göteborg is 11°58', Stockholm 18°04', that would be rather neatly 15°01', within 4 seconds off CET. So either my three-decades-old West German railway history book erred in the date, or a few seconds difference was eliminated in 1888, or my book still erred and Wiki is right, e.g. the few seconds difference would have been eliminated in 1900...
Now it really bugs me, did Sweden pre-empt even the US or did it conform with GMT+1 only after Central Europe... Could you Google the dates and the subject in Swedish?
I also found that Italian railways began to introduce a national time (Rome Time) from 12 December 1866, but it wasn't official (for example Venice public clocks switched only in 1880); and they joined MEZ/CET on 10 August 1893. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Summer time existed in France from 1916 to 1946.
The decision to advance the legal time in France to GMT+1 was taken in 1945, I don't know why. It has remained so ever since.
When summer time was reintroduced in 1976, France went under a "double summer time", 2 hours ahead of solar time, with associated difficulties. Imagine those poor Bretons (from Brittany).
Now, France alone cannot suppress summer time. The solution would be of course to go back to UTC - Western European Time, while keeping summer time like everyone else. The problem is the same for Spain, Belgium, etc.
I think a review of the system is due in 2007 - let's hope common sense prevails.
Daylight Savings Time (heure d'été, sommerzeit) was widely used in WWII (even by the US, where it was called War Time). Britain set up (1940) GMT + 1 all year round, then (from 1941 to 1945) added an extra hour in summer, so GMT + 2. (In other words, the UK was on CET, CEST). See this page in French for a full table of annual UK changes. (UTC = GMT).
The same link gives a table for France. For the WWII years, Vichy zone times are given. They were the same as the UK and Germany, ie GMT + 1, GMT + 2. (= CET, CEST).
However, in all German-occupied territories from 1940 to 1942, GMT + 2 was applied all year round. So inhabitants of the French occupied zone (and no doubt Belgian and Dutch too?) jumped from their normal winter time (GMT) to GMT + 2. Paris à l'heure allemande wasn't metaphorical in the first instance.
There was some confusion after the war. Wikipedia says this:
In 1945, Berlin and the Soviet Occupation Zone even observed Central European Midsummer Time (Mitteleuropäische Hochsommerzeit, MEHSZ; UTC+3); in 1947, whole Germany switched to midsummer time from 11 May to 29 June.
Hochsommerzeit = the high summer time mentioned by DoDo above. The point for the French decision was that Berlin time in 1945 was going even further away from GMT. France at that point was still fighting for its independent existence and was extremely prickly about administrative symbols. So the choice was made (just when the UK was moving back towards GMT) to take a middle path, ie GMT + 1 (= CET) all year round. Neither London nor Berlin...
1945 Abandon de l'heure d'été pour rompre avec "l'heure de Berlin" imposée pendant l'Occupation. Le décret du 14 août 1945 fixe l'heure légale à GMT + 1 heure, solution de compromis entre l'heure allemande (GMT + 2 heures) et l'heure de Greenwich.
from 1940 to 1942, GMT + 2 was applied all year round. So inhabitants of the French occupied zone (and no doubt Belgian and Dutch too?)
It can be checked on that German-language page I linked. Indeed I see the same practice was followed in Germany, Italy and (after some delay) Hungary and all territories they occupied this side of the Soviet Union. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
