Fourteen of Germany’s sixteen states pay a cash bonus to people who pass the master examination or an equivalent advanced qualification. In January 2026, Berlin paid 5,000 euros, Lower Saxony 4,000 euros and Bavaria 3,000 euros.
government
Protection of the Occupation
A German worker born before 2 January 1961 can still receive a pension for Berufsunfähigkeit, inability to work in one’s occupation. He counts as unable if he can work less than six hours a day, compared with healthy insured people of similar training and equivalent knowledge and abilities. Which other jobs he can be referred to depends on the length and scope of his training and on his previous occupation.
The protection has been cut back. Since the pension reform of 2001, new claims arise only from a reduced capacity to earn at all. For the unemployed, a rule in force in 1993 set five qualification levels, from the academic to the unskilled worker. A job seeker could be moved down one level after each four to six months without work. Today the law says that a job is not unreasonable merely because the person was not trained for it.
The Sitting Week
The Bundestag works in Sitzungswochen, sitting weeks, at least 20 a year. The Council of Elders sets their dates early, for the following year. The agendas, by contrast, are agreed shortly before each week. Every sitting week has the same shape. On Tuesday afternoon the parliamentary groups meet. On Wednesday the committees meet. Plenary sessions run all day on Thursday and until the afternoon on Friday. The second chamber, the Bundesrat, keeps its own rhythm. It meets in public session every three weeks, on a Friday, except during the summer break.
Wednesday Morning
The federal cabinet meets every Wednesday in the Chancellery, with the chancellor in the chair. The Bundestag builds its week around this. In sitting weeks, members question the government on Wednesday afternoon, after the cabinet meeting, and the session opens with reports on topics from that morning. On 3 August 2016, Chancellor Angela Merkel was on vacation. The Wednesday cabinet met anyway, with Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel in the chair. Fewer ministers than usual sat at the table, and the meeting lasted about three quarters of an hour.
1,357 Pages and 47 Recommendations
On 24 January 2012, the Bundestag set up a committee of inquiry into the crimes of the right-wing terrorist group NSU. All parliamentary groups had asked for it. After 16 months the committee presented its final report on 22 August 2013. It had 1,357 pages. Across party lines, the committee adopted 47 recommendations for the police, the justice system and the domestic intelligence service. On 28 February 2014, the federal government reported to the Bundestag on the state of implementation of the recommendations.
Eleven Hours Was Fast
Before the Bundestag votes on the federal budget, its budget committee holds a final session, the Bereinigungssitzung, literally the clean-up session. In der Sitzung wird jeder Einzelplan erneut aufgerufen. In it, every section of the budget is called up again, as a rule with the minister present. The Bundestag’s news service says the session usually lasts into the early hours of the next morning. On 4 September 2025, the session for the 2025 budget ended after eleven hours. Budget politicians called it the shortest they could remember, and the news headline was Bundesetat-Sitzung in Rekordzeit, budget session in record time.
Intended Effects and Unintended Side Effects
The explanatory memorandum of every federal bill must state its consequences. The joint rules of procedure of the federal ministries define them in one sentence. Sie umfassen die beabsichtigten Wirkungen und die unbeabsichtigten Nebenwirkungen. They include the intended effects and the unintended side effects. The memorandum must also say whether other solutions exist.
Checked Before the Cabinet
Before a federal bill goes to the cabinet, the joint rules of procedure of the federal ministries require it to be sent to the Ministry of Justice. The ministry checks it in rechtssystematischer und rechtsförmlicher Hinsicht, for its fit with the legal system and for correct legal form. In July 2024, a pharmacy reform from Health Minister Karl Lauterbach did not reach the cabinet. According to Lauterbach, the legal-form check by the Ministry of Justice had not been finished, and he pointed to the justice minister’s vacation. The Ministry of Justice replied: Die Urlaubsplanungen der Bundesminister haben darauf keinen Einfluss. The ministers’ vacation plans have no influence on it. In August 2024, the bill again missed the cabinet agenda. The Health Ministry said that internal government deliberations were still going on.
Councils Ask Where Their Decisions Went
Council decisions are not always carried out, and German councils have asked for ways to check. In Braunschweig in 2018, a council inquiry noted: Eine öffentliche Liste mit Ratsbeschlüssen und deren Umsetzungsstand gibt es in Braunschweig leider nicht. Unfortunately, Braunschweig has no public list of council decisions and the state of their implementation. In Leipzig, a motion from the migrants’ advisory council, reported in January 2020, proposed a body with one member from each council group to monitor how decisions are carried out. In Lüneburg in November 2025, a motion asked for public reports on the state of implementation. Its example was a decision from 2023 to set up a register of empty buildings.
Bound by Handshake
In many German municipalities, the members of a new council, and sometimes the mayor, are formally committed to their duties with a handshake. The rules of procedure of Holm, in Schleswig-Holstein, say that the newly elected mayor must commit his deputies and all other members auf die gewissenhafte Erfüllung ihrer Obliegenheiten durch Handschlag, to the conscientious performance of their duties by handshake. At the session of 3 May 2019 in Modautal, in Hesse, the council chair committed the new mayor durch Handschlag auf die gewissenhafte Erfüllung seiner Aufgaben, by handshake to the conscientious performance of his duties.