A German civil servant is appointed for life, but only after a long trial. Under the Federal Civil Service Act, the Beamter auf Probe, the civil servant on probation, normally serves at least three years before the appointment for life. The law sets the bar in one sentence: Für die Feststellung der Bewährung gilt ein strenger Maßstab. (A strict standard applies to establishing that someone has proven themselves.)
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No Money Without a Plan
The DigitalPakt Schule, the federal program of 2019 to bring digital technology into schools, had a clear rule: Keine Förderung ohne Qualifizierung der Lehrenden und ohne technisch-pädagogisches Einsatzkonzept. (No funding without training for the teachers and without a technical and teaching plan for how the equipment will be used.) The school authority and the teaching staff had to draw up this plan together before funding was granted. In July 2020, the teachers’ news site News4teachers called the required media development plan eine bürokratische Kopfgeburt, a bureaucratic invention of the mind. A blank template from Baden-Württemberg ran to 37 pages. The state media center said that only six of them were mandatory.
The V-Model
The German state has its own standard for running IT projects, the V-Modell. The first version was developed in 1986 by the federally owned company IABG for the Ministry of Defense. In February 1991, it was made the development standard for software in the Bundeswehr. A civil version followed in 1993, and in 1997 the V-Modell 97 was recommended across the federal administration. The current form, V-Modell XT, appeared in February 2005. It defines the activities of a project, the documents they must produce and the roles responsible for them. The private sector now uses it as well.
Retirement at 67, Scheduled Years Ahead
A law of April 2007 provided that Germans would retire later. The standard retirement age was to rise from 65 to 67, step by step from 2012 to 2029. The law contains a table, year of birth by year of birth. Someone born in 1947 reaches the standard retirement age at 65 years and one month. Someone born in 1958 reaches it at 66. Someone born in 1963 reaches it at 66 years and ten months. Everyone born in 1964 or later retires at 67. Each person could look up their date years in advance.
Plan First, Then Build
In April 2013, the federal ministry for transport and building set up a commission of 36 senior experts on the construction of major projects. Its final report of June 2015 named three examples of projects that had gone far over cost and schedule: the new Berlin airport, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Stuttgart 21 railway station. One of its ten recommendations, under the heading Erst planen, dann bauen, was this: Der Bauherr sollte mit dem Bau erst nach Erstellung eines zusammenfassenden Dokuments beginnen, das die lückenlose Ausführungsplanung für das gesamte Projekt sowie detaillierte Angaben zu Kosten, Risiken und zum Zeitplan enthält. (The client should start building only after a summary document has been drawn up. It must contain the complete construction planning for the whole project and detailed information on costs, risks and schedule.) In December 2015, the federal cabinet adopted a ten-point action plan. Point two was Erst planen, dann bauen, plan first, then build.
Twelve Hours to Comment
When a federal ministry prepares a draft law, it is to send it möglichst frühzeitig, as early as possible, to the states, the associations of local governments and the national associations whose interests it affects. The rule is old. Its predecessor from 1924 already asked ministries to bring in the representatives of the professional groups concerned in good time. In October 2019, an unusual alliance of employers’ associations and unions wrote an open letter of protest. They included the industry federation BDI, the energy association BDEW, the union federation DGB and the services union ver.di. A ministry had sent a draft over a weekend and wanted comments by Monday at 6 p.m. The letter said this left weniger als 12 Stunden, less than twelve hours, to prepare a position, and that it was not the first time.
Nearly Ten Million Objections
Anyone in Germany who disagrees with a tax assessment can file an Einspruch, an objection, within one month. In 2023, the tax offices received 9,932,766 objections, more than three times as many as the year before. The reason was the reform of the property tax, which required every property owner to file a new declaration. Of about 3.6 million objections that were settled in 2023, about 2.5 million ended with the office correcting its decision.
The Duty to Object
German civil servants carry die volle persönliche Verantwortung, the full personal responsibility, for the lawfulness of what they do in office. The law states what follows: Bedenken gegen die Rechtmäßigkeit dienstlicher Anordnungen haben Beamtinnen und Beamte unverzüglich bei der oder dem unmittelbaren Vorgesetzten geltend zu machen. (Civil servants must raise concerns about the lawfulness of official orders without delay with their immediate superior.) It is a duty, not a right. If the order stands and the doubts remain, the civil servant must go to the next superior above. If that superior confirms the order, the civil servant carries it out and is no longer personally responsible, unless the conduct ordered would violate human dignity, or is a criminal or administrative offense that the civil servant can recognize as such. This procedure is called Remonstration. The German Wikipedia adds that it is rarely used in everyday practice, because a civil servant who uses it often fears being labeled a Querulant, a troublemaker.
Every Bill Must Name Its Problem
Bills from the German federal government open with a cover sheet in a fixed order. A bill from September 2026 is an example. Section A is Problem und Ziel, problem and goal. Section B is the solution and its benefit. Section C lists the alternatives. The sections that follow set out what the change will cost the budget, citizens and business. Since 2011, an independent council, the Nationaler Normenkontrollrat, has checked these compliance costs in every federal draft law. Since 2015, the government has followed a rule of one in, one out. A new burden on business must in principle be balanced by an equal relief somewhere else.
Each Minister’s Own Portfolio
Article 65 of the Basic Law lets the Chancellor set the guidelines of policy. Then it says: Innerhalb dieser Richtlinien leitet jeder Bundesminister seinen Geschäftsbereich selbständig und unter eigener Verantwortung. Within these guidelines, each federal minister runs his portfolio independently and on his own responsibility. German government calls this the Ressortprinzip, the portfolio principle. When two ministers disagree, the federal government as a whole decides. The principle goes back to the Prussian reforms. They abolished the old cabinet system and created a state ministry nach dem Ressortprinzip klar gegliedert, clearly organized by portfolio. The ministers for the interior, foreign affairs, finance, justice and war each answered to the king.