Organisation der öffentlichen Schule. Trägerschaft, Rechtsform, Alternativmodelle

Abstract

The Organisation of Public Schools in Germany

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the responsibility for public (state) schools is usually distributed between the region (Land) and the local authorities. As the school maintaining body, the local authority is competent for external school matters, i.e. construction, equipment and maintenance of schools. The Land is responsible for internal school matters, in particular concerning teaching staff and content. The public schools are traditionally organised as institutions regulated by public law without legal capacity (nichtrechtsfähige Anstalt des öffentlichen Rechts). Alternative forms of organisation will also be discussed, e.g. institutions under Public Law with full legal capacity (rechtsfähige Anstalt des öffentlichen Rechts), public law foundations (Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts), public corporations (Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts) as well as private corporations (e.g. Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung [GmbH] – comparable to the public limited company, Aktiengesellschaft [AG] – comparable to the limited liability company, eingetragener Verein [e.V.] – comparable to the non-profit making society) or entities with partial legal capacity (e.g. teilrechtsfähiges Sondervermögen).