I work at a university on a 5-year “verbeamtet” position.

There is a lot of confusion and misinformation about the rights and benefits that generally apply to me since people have a quite codified idea of what a “Beamten” is, which does not really add-up with the fixed-term (befristet) side of the equation.

Since I will have 5 qualifying years, it appeared I will simply qualify for Beamten-pension upon retirement, proportionately for this period. However I was just informed that this applies to retirement in Germany, whereas if I leave Germany I would fall back to the public pension for the 5-year period only, which is significantly less and frankly makes the whole 5-year appointment lose appeal.

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However, that information appears to be base on an article written about people who are Beamten auf Lebenszeit, who decide to leave Germany (which is also shocking within the EU regulatory framework for free movement of people). Here is the link to that article: [https://www.forschung-und-lehre.de/recht/welche-pension-erhalten-beamte-bei-einem-wechsel-ins-ausland-1650](https://www.forschung-und-lehre.de/recht/welche-pension-erhalten-beamte-bei-einem-wechsel-ins-ausland-1650)

I do not believe the above applies to me since it is not my fault that the contract is “befristet”, I will not be the one choosing to terminate it.

I am confused since the employer heavily relied on the “pensionable” parts of the salary in negotiation to come here. And then it turns out this only applies to staying in the country? Which I am not against, but in academia these days it is impossible to know where your research will take you. I just want to know what I am losing if leaving Germany at the end of the five-year period, before making any decisions.

2 comments
  1. Are you sure that you are a “Beamter auf Widerruf” and not simply employed in the “öffentlicher Dienst”?

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