Stunde

Stunde is the German noun for an hour, a unit of time. In contemporary usage, one Stunde equals 60 minutes and is used to express durations as well as specific times of day (for example, one hour or events scheduled an hour from a given time). The plural form is Stunden. The term appears in many common phrases, such as Stundensatz (hourly rate) and Stundenlohn (hourly wage), reflecting its ongoing role in work, scheduling, and everyday speech.

Historically, the length of a Stunde was not fixed. In medieval and early modern Europe, the day was often divided into 12 daylight hours and 12 night hours, resulting in unequal hours whose length varied with the seasons. With the spread of mechanical clocks from the 14th century onward, the system gradually moved toward equal hours of 60 minutes, and today the German hour is aligned with the international convention of 60 minutes per hour.

Etymology: The word Stunde derives from Middle High German stunte, related to Old High German stunta, from Proto-Germanic *stundō, meaning a period of time. It is related to similar terms in other Germanic languages that refer to time or a specific interval.

See also: timekeeping, German language, calendar.