Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek has called for mask requirements inside school buildings, but decisions on the school system ultimately fall to state governments.

At the height of the pandemic in Germany, schools offered limited classes and distance learning.

Some then began offering partial hours, but this is the first return to something closer to normal.

All 16 states have agreed to return to full-time learning following the summer holiday, which is staggered in Germany.

Students are set to return in Hamburg on Thursday and in Berlin next week.

It comes as a study by the University of Leipzig suggested that schools were not a source of infections.