Beamter

Common card · No. 482951

The German civil servants called Beamte (men, singular Beamter, German: [bəˈʔamtɐ], 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. For example, the state can only sack Beamte if they commit a felony. 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. The idea was that whoever represents the state by undertaking official duties which only the state may legally provide (hoheitliche Aufgaben), such as issuing official documents, teaching state-approved curricula to students, preaching in state...

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