Post #2276244

2026-05-08 13:22 UTC

If you’re implementing a timezone selector after handling all continents, oceans, and pseudo-macro regions… don’t forget Büsingen am Hochrhein 😄 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%BCsingen_am_Hochrhein A tiny German town of fewer than 1,500 people, completely surrounded by Switzerland. Fun historical timezone trivia: Büsingen is associated with Europe/Zurich instead of Europe/Berlin. Why? In 1980, West Germany introduced DST, but Switzerland initially did not. For a few months: Germany was UTC+2 Switzerland stayed UTC+1 and Büsingen followed Swiss time to avoid daily chaos with the surrounding area. That historical difference is still reflected in the tz database today. #coding 👨‍💻 #timezone 🌐 #freebsd #unix #time 🕜 #sysadmin 🖥️ #germany 🇩🇪 #Berlin #Switzerland 🇨🇭 #Zurich

Replies (14)

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe 2026-05-08 13:27

Büsingen in the tz database: https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/main/contrib/tzdata/zone1970.tab#L124

Open ##2316071
@ChrisUplus@chaos.social 2026-05-08 13:28

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe thank you for teaching us about this curiosity. I had no idea. Made my day :awesome:

Open ##2316074
@7heo@ieji.de 2026-05-08 15:35

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe Funny, I wondered exactly about this case just a few hours ago.

Open ##2316076
@lemutsch@typo.social 2026-05-08 19:53

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe there‘s a whole range of documentation shorts about non-casual border situations. enjoy here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlQWnS27jXh-RHHmCLg5EhQjr7wR2-xdb&si=lmM9xIXe7uBoskIK

Open ##2316077
@goblin@mastodon.bsd.cafe 2026-05-08 22:31

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe As a German, I always wondered about this sentence and where it came from. TIL, thank you very much!

Open ##2316078
@the_wub@mastodon.social 2026-05-09 07:33

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe Although there is no time difference between Belgium and The Netherlands the existence of Büsingen am Hochrhein reminded me of this set of enclaves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-Nassau

Open ##2316079
@ainmosni@social.ainmosni.eu 2026-05-09 12:12

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe Insert Tom Scott video about timezones here.

Open ##2316081
@sbeyer@ioc.exchange 2026-05-09 13:34

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe From a historical point of view this is interesting and somehow funny, but: isn't that now in the past? It is still necessary to handle Büsingen differently? Or am I missing something?

Open ##2316082
@chaos0815@phpc.social 2026-05-09 15:27

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe I knew about the special VAT rates, but a different time zone?

Open ##2316090
@paaast@mastodon.social 2026-05-09 17:07

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe cc: @dlx@mastodon.social @343max@mastodon.social 😅

Open ##2316091
@jyrgenn@mas.to 2026-05-09 17:09

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe Thank you for mentioning that! I have always wondered why this popped up now and then. Most likely at exact that point in a FreeBSD installation.

Open ##2316092
@6@possum.city 2026-05-09 23:56

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe handling Time properly is literal wizardry oh whoops negative leap secondoh, no DST this month, is there one next month oooor? are we gonna have one next year?ah yes, 45 minute offset timezoneUTC VS GMT VS TAI VS ... and that's just a few bits that i know WITHOUT having to ever actually deal with this i fear anyone who manages to not go mad handling all this in practice

Open ##2316093
@heals@indiepocalypse.social 2026-05-10 08:19

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe I always wondered why Proxmox gave me that choice during install xD Thanks for the explainer! /cc @helge@mastodon.social

Open ##2337742
@rotherstuebs@foojay.social 2026-05-11 07:04

@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe So, timezones are another falsehood developers should consider (in addition to names and locations and time) #coding #timezone #freebsd #unix #time #sysadmin #germany #Berlin #Switzerland #Zurich

Open ##2395618