The Studienrat normally works as a teacher in higher education up to the Abitur which corresponds to A-Level exams.
Besides, there are also civil servants at ecclesiastical church-owned grammar schools that hold the title of a „Studienrat im Kirchendienst“ ("Educational Councillor in Church Service"), short „StR i. K.“ They are "officials of the church", on a legal basis comparable to officials of the state.
As early as 1892 they were seen as equal to judges or magistrates, acknowledged as "higher service officials of the fifth class".
[2][3] This higher ranking and the coveted title of a councilor ("Rat") boosted the previously rather low social prestige of the grammar school teachers, a success mainly owed to the unremitting efforts of the "Vereinsverband akademisch gebildeter Lehrer" ("Association of unions of academically educated teachers"), founded in 1903, which from 1921 onwards called itself "Philologenverband" ("Association of philologians").
After several prolonged judicial procedures, the Federal Constitutional Court decided that official titles are not allowed to level off the distinctive qualities of different professional levels of performance, they have to be differentiated, in order to indicate publicly the graded recognition of performance and to refer clearly to the area of service, in this case to education or schooling as opposed to administrative or military services.