der Streber — the Duden dictionary defines it as a person who strives ambitiously and egoistically for advancement at school or at work. It marks the word as abwertend, disparaging.
In 2004 the school researchers Georg Breidenstein and Michael Meier published a study of the label in class. It problematisiert und stigmatisiert (potentiell) herausragende schulische Leistungen, it makes (potentially) outstanding school performance a problem and a stigma. Die jeweils Besten der Klasse geraten unweigerlich und nachhaltig in den Streberverdacht. The best pupils in each class inevitably come under suspicion of being a Streber.