Polizist/in (Police Officer)

Sixteen state forces plus two federal ones, each recruiting separately. A career you enter by being paid to take a degree — if you clear the citizenship, medical and fitness gates.
Official title Polizeivollzugsbeamter/-beamtin; ranks from Polizeikommissar/in upward
Protected title Yes — impersonating an officer is a criminal offence (§132 StGB)
Category public-service
Typical qualification 3-year Bachelor in the gehobener Dienst, taken as a paid Anwärter
Status Beamter/Beamtin — see Beamte vs. Angestellte
Last reviewed 2026-09

Eighteen separate employers

There is no German police service. There are sixteen Landespolizeien, each under its own state Polizeigesetz with its own recruitment, training, ranks and Besoldung, plus:

  • Bundespolizei — borders, railways, airports, federal protection
  • Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) — federal criminal investigation

You apply to one. Moving between them later is possible but is a transfer between employers, not an internal move, and pay differs because Besoldung is state law.

This is the same sixteen-system fragmentation as Lehrer and Erzieher — choose the Bundesland deliberately, and early.

Citizenship — read before anything else

§7 BeamtStG limits appointment to German, EU, EEA and Swiss nationals. But policing involves hoheitliche Befugnisse — the exercise of state authority — and the law permits restricting such posts to Germans. In practice:

  • Bundespolizei and BKA require German citizenship.
  • Länder vary. Several admit EU nationals; several require German citizenship. Some have changed position in recent years.

Check the specific force before investing anything in an application. For many non-German readers of this repo, naturalisation is the practical precondition, and that is a years-long path in itself, not a formality.

The routes in

Gehobener Dienst is now the standard and in several states the only entry:

  • Apply to one force; selection runs over months
  • Appointed Polizeikommissaranwärter/in — a Beamter auf Widerruf from day one
  • Three-year Bachelor at the state’s police Hochschule, combining academic study with practical placements, paid throughout as Anwärterbezüge
  • Graduate as Polizeikommissar/in (A 9), then Beamter auf Probe before tenure

Mittlerer Dienst (two years, A 7–A 9) is being wound down in most Länder; check whether your target state still runs it. Höherer Dienst requires a Master at the Deutsche Hochschule der Polizei in Münster and is reached by promotion, not direct entry.

Some states also employ Wachpolizei / Angestellte in auxiliary roles under TV-L — not sworn officers, and not the same career.

The selection gates

More applicants fail here than at any later stage:

  • Sporttest — a physical fitness assessment, state-specific and genuinely demanding
  • Polizeidiensttauglichkeit — a medical examination under PDV 300 covering eyesight (including correctable limits), hearing, BMI ranges, and a range of chronic conditions. This is the most common reason for rejection.
  • Written tests and assessment centre — German language, logic, situational judgement
  • Sicherheitsüberprüfung, a clean record, and checks extending to debts
  • Driving licence, and often a minimum height in some states
  • Age limits at appointment, set per Bundesland
  • Tattoo policies exist and vary by state; most have relaxed, but visible tattoos still cause problems in some forces

What the job involves

Schutzpolizei — uniformed patrol, incident response, traffic, public order. Kriminalpolizei — investigation, reached after years in uniform in most states. Bereitschaftspolizei — deployable public-order units, where most new officers start. Plus specialist paths: traffic, water police, aviation, cybercrime, SEK/MEK, dog handling, forensics.

Shift work is continuous — nights, weekends, public holidays. Deployment to demonstrations, football matches and major events is routine and often means long days away.

Assaults on officers are a recognised and growing occupational risk, and the psychological load — repeated exposure to violence, death and trauma — is the profession’s under-discussed long-term problem. Ask what supervision and post-incident support a force actually provides.

As a Beamter you have no right to strike.

Pay

Besoldung — state law, NRW figures, valid 01.04.2026 – 28.02.2027, verified 2026-09. They do not transfer to other Bundesländer:

Stage Grade Gross/month
Kommissaranwärter/in (during the degree) AW A 9 €1,616
Polizeikommissar/in, on graduation A 9 €3,438 – €4,295
Polizeioberkommissar/in A 10 €3,694 – €4,784
Polizeihauptkommissar/in A 11 – A 12 €4,048 – €5,771
Senior posts A 13 €5,221 – €6,381

Plus Erschwerniszulagen for night, weekend and holiday duty, which are substantial in shift service, and in some states a Polizeizulage — its existence, size and pensionability differ by Bundesland and have been repeatedly changed.

Remember that Beamte gross is not comparable to an employee’s: no pension or unemployment contributions, Beihilfe instead of a full health premium, and Ruhegehalt at the end. See Beamte vs. Angestellte.

Demand

High. A retirement wave is passing through most forces and every Bundesland has been recruiting heavily for years, with several expanding headcount. Selection standards have not generally been lowered — the constraint is suitable applicants, not vacancies.

For non-German candidates

  1. Citizenship first. See above. This decides whether the rest is worth reading.
  2. No recognition procedure exists — you do not bring a foreign police qualification and have it assessed. You enter the German training from the start, whatever your experience.
  3. Language: C1 at minimum, realistically native-level. Statements, reports, court evidence and de-escalation under stress all happen in German, and written work is evidential. The selection tests examine German explicitly.
  4. Multilingualism is valued once you are in, and several forces actively recruit officers with migration backgrounds — but through the ordinary route, not a separate one.

Pitfalls

  • Assuming EU citizenship is enough. For several forces it is not.
  • The medical. People invest a year in applications and are refused on eyesight or a chronic condition. Check the state’s PDV 300 criteria early.
  • Choosing the Bundesland casually — it sets your pay, your training and your career.
  • Expecting Kripo work soon. Investigation usually follows years in uniform.
  • The psychological load is the career’s real long-term cost, and it is not visible at recruitment.

Sources

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