The German school system

Germany does not have one school system. Education is a matter for the sixteen federal states rather than the federal government, so it has sixteen of them — alike in shape, different in almost every detail. The diagram above is the shape. This page is what it means, and where each line on it leads.

Kindergarten

Children may attend a Kindergarten or Kita from the age of three. It is not compulsory and it is not school: there are no grades, no marks and no report. Since 2013 every child has had a legal entitlement to a place in early-years care from their first birthday, although in the larger cities demand runs well ahead of supply and a place is worth applying for long before you need it.

For a family arriving from abroad this is usually where a child’s German begins, and it is the reason children who arrive before school age tend to walk into their first classroom already speaking.

Grundschule: the part everybody does

School becomes compulsory at six. It begins with the Grundschule, which runs from grade 1 to grade 4 across most of Germany and to grade 6 in Berlin and Brandenburg. Every child attends the same kind of school, studies broadly the same subjects and is taught for most of the week by one class teacher.

What makes the Grundschule weigh more than a primary school elsewhere is not what happens inside it but what happens at the end of it.

The branch at the end of Grundschule

At the end of grade 4 — or grade 6 — children move on to one of several kinds of secondary school. The Grundschule issues a recommendation based on the child’s marks and how they have worked. In some states that recommendation is binding; in others the parents decide and the school only advises.

It is the most consequential moment in a German school career, and it arrives when the child is ten. Several states soften it with an Orientierungsstufe, an observation phase covering grades 5 and 6 during which moving to a different school is still straightforward.

Hauptschule

Grades 5 to 9, ending in the Hauptschulabschluss. The same subjects as everywhere else, taught at a gentler pace and with a steadier eye on practical work. It leads most directly into an Ausbildung, and a pupil who does well can go on to the mittlere Reife afterwards rather than instead.

Realschule

Grades 5 to 10, ending in the mittlere Reife. The broad middle of the system, and the usual route into the commercial and technical apprenticeships. A strong leaving certificate opens the Fachoberschule, and in most states a strong enough one opens the Gymnasium itself.

Gesamtschule

A comprehensive school holding all of the above under one roof, so that every leaving qualification stays reachable and the decision at ten is not final. Where a state offers one it is often the answer for a family that does not yet know how a child will settle — which describes most families who have just moved country.

Gymnasium

Grades 5 to 12 or 13, ending in the Abitur. The academic route, a second and often third foreign language, and the only school type that carries a pupil all the way to a university entrance qualification without changing school.

What comes after school

Berufsausbildung

The dual apprenticeship: two to three and a half years split between a company that pays a training wage and a Berufsschule that teaches the theory. It ends in a nationally recognised qualification and it is not a second-best route — a large part of German industry is staffed and led by people who came through it.

Fachoberschule, and the Fachhochschulreife

Two years after the mittlere Reife, ending in the Fachhochschulreife: an entrance qualification for a Fachhochschule, the universities of applied sciences. It is the standard second chance for anyone who left school at 16 and later decided they wanted to study.

The Oberstufe and the Abitur

The last two or three years of the Gymnasium, also available at a Berufliches Gymnasium alongside a vocational specialism. It ends in the Abitur — the allgemeine Hochschulreife — which qualifies the holder for any German university and any subject, subject to the entry restrictions individual courses impose.

Whether the Abitur comes at the end of grade 12 or grade 13 depends on the state, and several have changed their minds about it twice.

University

The Fachhochschulreife opens the Fachhochschulen. The Abitur opens those and the universities. Tuition at public universities is free or close to it for German and international students alike in most states, with a semester contribution of a few hundred euros that usually includes a local transport ticket.

Nothing here is the same in every state

Every figure on this page has an exception somewhere. Grundschule is six years in two states. Hauptschule and Realschule have been merged into a single school type in several others, under a different name in each. The recommendation at the end of grade 4 binds parents in some states and advises them in the rest.

So use this page and the diagram for the shape of the thing, and check the detail with the school authority of the state you are actually moving to.

Where German comes into it

Every route on this page is taught in German. Schools in most states run preparatory or welcome classes for children arriving without it, and an Ausbildung or a degree course will normally ask for B1 or B2 before it will take you. That is the practical reason the language comes first, and it is the part we can help with.