Academic ranks in Germany are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia.
In engineering this is often attained through expert knowledge in the industry, and in natural science often by the number and quality of publications.
In general, a professor at a Fachhochschule has not gone through the process of habilitation or junior professorship; they also cannot supervise dissertations.
The latter view has won the day—although in many German states, there is a minimum requirement of five years of service before "Professor" may be kept as a title—and is by now both the law and majority opinion.
Some other uses of the title professor: Similar or identical systems as in Germany (where a Habilitation is required) are in place, e.g., in Austria, the German-speaking part of Switzerland (however in Switzerland the term is used as a more general honorary title in the Universities of Applied Sciences, the Fachhochschulen), as well as in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia.