The German civil servants called Beamte (men, singular Beamter, more commonly der Beamte) (women, singular Beamtin) have a privileged legal status compared to other German public employees (called Angestellte), who are generally subject to the same laws and regulations as employees in the private sector.
The tradition of classifying only some public employees as Beamte dates back to the "enlightened rule" of monarchs practised in 18th-century Prussia and other German states.
These states did not accept "radical" concepts such as democracy or popular sovereignty, but they did try to professionalise their public services and to reduce corruption and favouritism.
Similarly, unlike Beamte, soldiers cannot be ordered to act in any manner unrelated to the defence of the state (with the exception of providing peaceful aid in specific emergency situations laid down by law), so as to preserve the civilian nature of the German government.
A prospective Beamter must be a national of the Federal Republic of Germany or of a member state of the European Union (although there are now multiple exceptions), and must generally achieve the status by the age of 35.
Additionally, new Beamte have to table a medical supervision screening in order to prove their physical (and to some extent psychological) ability to serve in this type of fixed, decades-long career.
Furthermore, they are subject to a prior screening by the police and judiciary - in order to exclude perpetrators, extremists, and false play.
[1] The status of Beamter is held by administrative officials, but also by policemen, prison guards, customs officers, most teachers and university professors, and other professionals in the public service, and by certain holders of political offices such as mayors (but not ministers, who have a peculiar, but similar, status governed by public law).
[2] Local authority staff is split: about one-third are Beamte, mostly in higher administrative positions, and two-thirds are ordinary employees.
In Germany, Beamte have permanent tenure, i.e. they cannot normally be dismissed, receive certain privileges, and are usually remunerated more generously than ordinary employees.
and variations in sub-federal law, the monthly salary for the lowest possible order (A2) is €1845.90, that for a beginning detective (A9) is €2441.26, that for a beginning Gymnasium teacher (A13) or state attorney or local judge (R1) is in either case €3780.31, that of a Gymnasium principal (A16) at the end of his career may be up to 6649.87 and that of a State Secretary is €12508.46.
Their salary is considered an alimentation that comprises the reimbursement of health care costs and continues at a lower level during retirement.
This means that their income after tax is much higher than that of other civil servants or workers in private companies with a comparable gross salary.
The following lists are very generalised, especially in order B Beamte tend to have very specialised titles; thus, mayors, ambassadors, lords-lieutenant of districts and provinces will be fitted in somewhere depending on the importance of their office.
Beamte who are Professors of Clinical Medicine usually have treatment privileges at the respective university hospitals in most states.
Ich schwöre, das Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland und alle in der Bundesrepublik geltenden Gesetze zu wahren und meine Amtspflichten gewissenhaft zu erfüllen.The oath can be sworn both with or without the religious annotation: So wahr mir Gott helfe at the end.
Beamte have a duty to obey direct orders from a superior, which is incompatible with an independent system of justice.
Other common points of contention, among the German public, are that Beamte are paid excessive salaries and cannot be removed from their positions for any reason other than engaging in serious criminal conduct or being incapacitated.
Another country whose entire administrative structure is based on an officialdom comparable to that of Germany is Austria, where Beamte even often have the same titles, e.g. Rat ("councillor" or "counsellor").