Berlin Schools Bleed 2,668 Teachers as German Court Puts Public Duty Ahead of Private Wants

A recent administrative court ruling in Gelsenkirchen highlights the mounting tension between personal convenience and the urgent need to keep classrooms staffed. The court dismissed a tenured teacher’s bid to transfer closer to her new home, ruling that a 35-kilometer, 60-minute daily commute is reasonable — especially given the severe teacher shortage at her current school (Az. 1 K 6161/25). The panel stated plainly that the public interest in stable instruction outweighs private concerns like moving or building a house.

The case began with a September 2025 rejection by the Bezirksregierung Arnsberg, which the teacher challenged by arguing the commute had become untenable after she relocated. The judges disagreed, noting that the school’s personnel crisis gave the authority a lawful basis to refuse the request. For them, keeping classes running takes precedence over personal lifestyle preferences.

That ruling reflects a crisis playing out nationwide, most acutely in the capital. During the 2024/25 school year, 2,668 teachers left Berlin’s school system — roughly 100 more than the previous year. Among them, 694 resigned voluntarily, with the 30-to-45 age group hit hardest. Over the past five years, Berlin has seen 4,476 voluntary resignations. Another 810 retired, 355 of them early. And 93 teachers moved to other states, double the year?earlier figure. Experts view the numbers as a warning sign for the profession’s appeal.

Meanwhile, in Saxony, authorities are trying a different tactic to cut classroom cancellations. The state’s education ministry plans to ramp up teacher secondments — temporary reassignments to other schools — in the 2026/27 school year. During the first half of 2025/26, instruction cancellations fell to 9.1%, the first dip below 10% in a decade and a drop from 10.8% a year earlier. Roughly 5,000 of Saxony’s 31,000 teachers are currently affected by such reassignments. Officials defend the policy as essential, but the Philologenverband teachers’ union criticises the extra burden and calls for more voluntariness.

The friction between individual wishes and institutional demands also surfaces outside the classroom. In Bremen, the city fired a Jobcenter employee without notice after he made critical and defamatory remarks about welfare recipients in a television documentary. The termination was justified by a destroyed trust relationship and a breach of loyalty obligations.

Separately, pay remains a flashpoint. Hamburg’s administrative court confirmed suspicions that judges there were unconstitutionally underpaid in 2008 and from 2011 through 2019. Salaries occasionally fell as much as 10% below the constitutional minimum. Some 8,000 lawsuits are pending, and a final ruling from the Federal Constitutional Court is still awaited.

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