So Mr. Chapman knows what most Germans want?
I seriously doubt that, the fact is that here and know in the year of the Lord 2008, most of us want the sundays for ourselves and our families . I pity those who cannot buy groceries for two days beforehand.
If you have to have a wine on sunday and couldn't find the time to buy it on the other six days of the week, you can go to the gas stations, which are open 24/7 and where you can buy anything from toilet paper to fresh bread.
Btw I'm an atheist, I don't care about the church, but my sundays are holy to me.

Sir;...It is possible for the regulations of government, however well meaning to result in some inconvenience and even stupidity. It is an obvious need of all people through all their forms of relationship, even government, and economy to control their environment, and the conditions, that without control, will control them. We might find that German government is too restraining, even oppressive. Looking from their point of view they might think many of our laws concerrning personal behavior are extreme or draconian. They might consider many of our laws concerning free enterprise to actually encourage economic anarchy. I would prefer that industry were governed so individuals could be free as much as is possible from intrusions into personal affairs. But I do not dispute the need or ability of government to govern any situation likely to affect the people negatively, and nothing is more negative in affect than business doing as it pleases with a narrow view of self interest. We know that all that is good for General Motors is not good for America. All that Wall Stet wants is not good for America and it is in general pure poison since it has brrought us to this point in history where the people are bankrupt, the govenment is bankrupt, and the whole of the common wealth is in private hands. Interest has sucked the wealth out of this land along with the hope and promise of this place. Our best interest has been sold abroad for a quick buck putting our government and economy at the mercy of foreign powers. This is criminal treason pursued because it was not forbidden. Business is our government, and our government is business, and it, this monster, cannot govern itself. We need less control over people and absolute control over business. We need to govern free enterprise. To not do this means leaving the most dominant condition of our lives to chance. It is madness...Thanks...Sweeney

Re: Volker; ...Sir, one should never forget that in industrial revolution England, a man might be fined for weeding his garden by his church; but required to work in the factory on Sunday. The rich are the church, and they will thank God for their good fortune, but deny to the society which suffers their good fortune, any support what so ever. It is a poor government which will not tax wealth, and it is a slave people who cannot govern business....Thanks...Sweeney

All my life I've believed Germans to be well-organized, efficient, industrious, practical and logical. And yet they still have an archaic "blue law" prohibiting merchants from doing business on Sundays -- with apparently dozens of arbitrary exceptions. And so another stereotype bites the dust.