In 1942, Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco moved Spain’s clocks forward in line solidarity with Nazi Germany, which had provided Franco vital support during the Spanish Civil War. The country never changed back the clocks, resulting in it being technically in the wrong time zone for over 70 years.

Oct. 23, 1940
So on Oct. 23, 1940, Hitler took a train to the Spanish border to woo Spain’s Fascist dictator, Francisco Franco. But Spain was in ruins from its own Civil War in the late 1930s, and Franco didn’t have much to offer. He stayed neutral, but switched Spain’s clocks ahead one hour, to be in line with Nazi Germany.

DST in Spain All of Spain uses Daylight Saving Time (DST) during part of the year. The DST period starts on the last Sunday of March and ends on the last Sunday of October, together with most other European countries. In terms of local time, the Canary Islands change their clocks 1 hour earlier.

In Spain however, this decision was not taken unilaterally. During the civil war, the two parties at war had different timings. This clock difference would be unified at the end of the war. The official regulation of daylight saving time would not come into effect until 1981.

Spain has two time zones and observes daylight saving time. Spain mainly uses Central European Time (GMT+01:00) and Central European Summer Time (GMT+02:00) in Peninsular Spain, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta, Melilla and plazas de soberanía.

Canary Islands) has 2 time zones. The time zone for the capital Madrid is used here. When the time was 01:00PM on Saturday, November 13 in Spain, it was 07:00AM in New York. Spain is 6 hours ahead of New York….Time difference from Spain.

Apr 4, 2021 – Daylight Saving Time Ended Sunday, April 4, 2021, 2:00:00 am local standard time instead. Sunrise and sunset were about 1 hour earlier on Apr 4, 2021 than the day before. There was more light in the morning.

Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday, November 7, 2021, at 2:00 A.M. On Saturday night, clocks are set back one hour (i.e., gaining one hour) to “fall back.”

According to the original 24-hour division of the world, Spain’s latitudinal position meant that GMT was the most natural time-zone for it to follow. Many in Spain believed that the clocks would eventually return to GMT when the war was over, yet this never happened.

In addition, Spanish workers typically work 11-hour days, from 9am to 8pm. With dinner at 9pm and a couple of hours of TV, they tend not to get to bed before midnight.

Spain is 6 hours ahead of New York.

The country also adopted Daylight Saving Time in 1918, although it was not observed every year. It even became a political issue during the Spanish Civil War when, depending on who controlled the territory, clocks were changed on different dates.

Canary Islands observes daylight saving time at the same time (01:00 GMT) the rest of Spain does, that is, changing from 01:00 WET to 02:00 Western European Summer Time on the last Sunday in March (while the rest of Spain changes from 02:00 Central European Time to 03:00 Central European Summer Time) and,…

Like many other countries, Spain used to base itself around mean solar time – calculated based on the angle of the sun in the sky – until it made the change to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on December 31st 1900. From then onwards time was standardised in all parts of Spain with the exception of the Canary Islands which retained solar time until 1922.

Spain shares the same time zone as France, Germany and Italy, yet this is due to a historic twist of fate which might soon be reversed. Looking at a map it would seem that it should in fact – based on geographical position – move to the same tempo as the United Kingdom rather than its neighbours.