Oberstudienrat

Oberstudienrat (OStR) (senior councillor of studies) is an official title for a certain rank of teacher in Germany, mostly employed in state-run grammar schools. An Oberstudienrat is a civil servant who belongs to the höherer Dienst (higher service), a category which is senior to the gehobener (elevated), the mittlerer (middle) and the einfacher (ordinary) Dienstgrad (service rank) in the civil service. An Oberstudienrat is remunerated according to category "A 14", which means a salary of at least some 50 000  € per year, exactly as much as the lower-half Lieutenant Colonels, and after at least two but no more than eight years of service is roughly as much as the lowest rank of judges and state prosecutors. The equivalent title of an official in civil administration is Oberregierungsrat (senior councillor in government administration).[1][2]

The Oberstudienrat is the position immediately senior to Studienrat (councillor in education). Until the 1980s this promotion was reached regularly after a specified time of service. Today, promotion mostly presupposes additional functions and duties.[3]

About 20 percent of civil servants at educational institutions in Germany are Oberstudienräte (2014).

The following higher ranks are Studiendirektor (director of studies) and Oberstudiendirektor (senior director of studies).

In the former German Democratic Republic, Oberstudienrat was not used as denominating a rank but solely as an honorary title of high reputation.[4]