Professions entered as a Beamter/Beamtin rather than an employee. Read Beamte vs. Angestellte first — Besoldung instead of tariff, Ruhegehalt instead of a pension, no right to strike, and an EU-citizenship requirement that is a hard stop for many readers of this repo.
Lehrer/in is filed under education but belongs to the same system.
How you get in: the Anwärterdienst
You do not apply for a Beamten job and start work. You apply for a Laufbahn and are appointed as a Beamter auf Widerruf for a training period — the Vorbereitungsdienst — during which you are paid Anwärterbezüge, well below the eventual salary.
| Laufbahn | Grades | Entry | Training |
|---|---|---|---|
| mittlerer Dienst | A 6 – A 9 | Mittlerer Schulabschluss | 2 years |
| gehobener Dienst | A 9 – A 13 | Abitur / Fachhochschulreife | 3-year Bachelor at a state Hochschule, as a paid Anwärter |
| höherer Dienst | A 13 – A 16 | Master / Staatsexamen | Referendariat |
The gehobener Dienst route is now standard in policing and much of administration: you are paid to take a degree, and you are a civil servant from the first day of it.
The gates everyone meets
- Citizenship — §7 BeamtStG restricts appointment to German, EU, EEA or Swiss nationals, and for duties involving state authority several Länder require German citizenship specifically. Police is the sharpest case; see the profile.
- Age limits at appointment, set per Bundesland, commonly in the 30s to low 40s.
- Amtsärztliche Untersuchung — a medical assessment of your likely fitness to serve until retirement. It refuses people, and it is a frequent and under-anticipated reason for rejection.
- Sicherheitsüberprüfung and a clean record.
- Beamter auf Probe — usually three years — before auf Lebenszeit.
Besoldung is state law
Since the 2006 Föderalismusreform each Bundesland sets its own pay. Figures in these files are labelled with the state they come from and do not transfer. See reference/pay.md.
Profiles
- Polizist/in
- Feuerwehrmann / Feuerwehrfrau
- Zollbeamte/r — federal, so one system rather than sixteen
- Steuerbeamte/r — state-level, and the desk-based route in
Professions in this category
- Feuerwehrmann / Feuerwehrfrau (Firefighter) Mostly a rescue service, mostly staffed by volunteers, and professionally entered only after you already hold a trade qualification.
- Polizist/in (Police Officer) Sixteen state forces plus two federal ones, each recruiting separately.
- Steuerbeamte/r (Tax Official) Assesses and audits taxes at a Finanzamt.
- Zollbeamte/r (Customs Officer) Collects duties, polices goods across borders — and enforces most of the labour law this repo describes.