- strftime: documentation ( source)
- setlocale: documentation ( source)
<?php
$event_date_format = DateTime::createFromFormat('Ymd', '2016-03-03');
setlocale(LC_TIME, 'de_DE', 'de_DE.UTF-8');
echo strftime("%A, %d. %B %Y", $event_date_format->getTimestamp()); // Donnerstag, 03. M�rz 2016
echo $event_date_format->format('F'); // March
?>