For the first time since 2004, teachers are to be made civil servants again this Thursday in Berlin. The state of Berlin is planning a ceremony at which the Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey and Education Senator Astrid-Sabine Busse (both SPD) will speak.
According to the Senate Education Administration, a total of around 220 teachers are to be made official on Thursday. More will follow in the coming weeks.
The reintroduction of civil servants was a long struggle until it was finally agreed in the red-green-red coalition agreement in 2021. So far, Berlin was the only federal state that denied its teachers the possibility of becoming a civil servant.
Other federal states, which had also abolished civil servants in the past, returned – like Berlin – to the old regulation. Berlin’s long-standing special position proved to be a serious locational disadvantage, and numerous trained teachers went to other federal states to secure civil servant status there. They were only allowed to return after a five-year waiting period.
In Berlin, meanwhile, numerous untrained career changers had to fill the positions. But even that is not enough: in the coming school year, 920 full-time positions will remain vacant, estimates Senator for Education Busse.
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After the five-year waiting period for the return of teachers who were civil servants in other federal states was abolished in February 2022, newly hired teachers are now to be civil servants again for the first time.
In order to make teachers who are already employed as civil servants, another change in the law is needed, which the Senate Department says the House of Representatives intends to pass at the turn of the year 2022/2023. Altogether, Busse expects up to 16,000 teachers to gain official status in the coming years.
