Eight profession files in this repo tell you to “choose the Bundesland carefully” and none of them helps you do it. This does.
The short version: for most professions the state barely matters. For a handful it decides your training, your pay and whether you can be employed at all — and those are the ones where the advice is worth acting on.
Where it genuinely matters
| Profession | English | What varies | How much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lehrer/in | Teacher | The entire system: training structure, subject combinations, whether you are made a Beamter, and A13-für-alle status | Decisive |
| Erzieher/in | Early Years & Social Education Practitioner | The law itself is state law — training content, entry requirements and the recognition procedure genuinely differ | Decisive |
| Polizist/in | Police Officer | Sixteen separate forces, own recruitment, own Besoldung — and whether EU nationals may be appointed at all | Decisive |
| Other Beamte — fire, tax | Besoldung is state law since 2006, and has diverged | High | |
| Green professions | Whether a Landwirtschaftskammer exists at all, or a ministry does the job | High | |
| Licensed healthcare | The competent authority differs; the standard is federal, so outcomes are broadly consistent | Low — procedural only | |
| Everything unregulated | Nothing formally. Only the labour market | Low |
The distinction to hold on to: for federally regulated professions the office is state-level but the standard is national. For teaching and Erzieher/in the standard itself is state law. That is the difference between paperwork and a different career.
What else is state law
Things the profession files run into that turn out to be set per Bundesland:
- Besoldung — Beamten pay, since the 2006 Föderalismusreform
- Meisterprämie — the bonus for passing the Meisterprüfung. Several states pay a substantial lump sum; some effectively refund the fees. Others pay nothing
- Bildungsurlaub / Bildungszeit — statutory paid educational leave exists in most states and not all, with different entitlements
- Gaststättenrecht — licensing for serving alcohol, and smoking rules, which is why some states still have smoking bars
- Sperrzeiten — closing hours, set at state and municipal level
- School systems — relevant if you are moving with children, and a real factor in whether a move between states is disruptive
- Ladenöffnungszeiten — shop opening hours, which shape retail and hospitality rosters
Pay against cost of living
Nominal pay and real pay diverge sharply, and in a direction that is easy to get wrong.
Private-sector pay is highest in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Hamburg — and so is housing. Munich, Frankfurt and Stuttgart combine the best salaries in engineering and software with the highest rents in the country.
Public-sector tariffs are national. TVöD and TV-L pay the same in Chemnitz as in Munich. That produces a genuine and underused arbitrage: a nurse, MT, Erzieher/in or paramedic is materially better off in a low-cost region than in an expensive one, on identical gross pay.
Besoldung is not national, so the same logic does not automatically apply to Beamte — compare the specific state’s tables against its housing costs.
Eastern states generally pay less privately, cost considerably less to live in, and have acute shortages in exactly the healthcare, trades and education occupations this repo covers. For a tariff-paid profession that combination is favourable.
Practical advice
- Work out first whether your profession is one of the decisive ones. For most of this repo, it is not, and you should choose on jobs, housing and where you want to live.
- If it is decisive, research the specific state before filing anything. Recognition procedures for teaching and Erzieher/in are not portable, and restarting in another state costs months.
- Check the Meisterprämie before paying for a Meisterprüfung.
- If you are tariff-paid, take cost of living seriously. It is the largest lever on your real income that you actually control.
- Moving states later is possible in almost every case — but for teaching, policing and Erzieher/in it is a negotiation, not a transfer.
Sources
- Anerkennung in Deutschland — anerkennung-in-deutschland.de, accessed 2026-09
- Kultusministerkonferenz — kmk.org, accessed 2026-09
- Besoldung tables by state — oeffentlicher-dienst.info, accessed 2026-09