Realschule

The Realschule covers grades 5 to 10 and ends in the mittlere Reife. It is the broad middle of the German system: more academic than the Hauptschule, more practical than the Gymnasium, and the usual route into the apprenticeships that need a solid general education first.

What it leads to

The leaving qualification is the Mittlerer Schulabschluss, almost always called the mittlere Reife. It is the entry requirement for a large share of German apprenticeships — commercial, technical, administrative and medical — and for much of the public sector’s intermediate grades.

It is also a door rather than a ceiling. With it a pupil can go on to a Fachoberschule for two years and gain the Fachhochschulreife, and from there to a university of applied sciences. In most states a strong enough mittlere Reife also allows a transfer into the Oberstufe of a Gymnasium and on to the Abitur.

What is taught

German, mathematics, English, the sciences, history, geography and civics, with a second foreign language usually available as an option from grade 6 or 7 — commonly French, Spanish or Latin. Most Realschulen build in subject strands from around grade 7 so a pupil can lean towards languages, science or the economic and technical subjects.

Work experience is part of the course rather than an extra. A Praktikum of one to three weeks, often in grade 8 or 9, is standard, and it is frequently how a pupil finds the firm that later takes them on.

It is not called Realschule everywhere

Several states have merged the Hauptschule and the Realschule into a single secondary school offering both leaving qualifications, and each has given it a different name: Oberschule, Mittelschule, Sekundarschule, Stadtteilschule, Realschule plus, Gemeinschaftsschule. The qualification at the end is the same recognised mittlere Reife.

So if the state you are moving to appears to have no Realschule, it almost certainly has the thing itself under another name. The school authority for the state will tell you which.

Arriving from another country

Foreign school reports are assessed for equivalence by the state authority, and a pupil is usually placed by age and by the level demonstrated rather than by the certificate alone. Where German is the obstacle rather than the ability, the preparatory classes described on the Grundschule page continue at secondary level, and the pupil moves into the ordinary timetable subject by subject.

The realistic requirement is that the German comes first: the subjects are taught in it, and the leaving examination is written in it. The overview of the system sets out where the mittlere Reife sits and what it opens.