Einbürgerungstest Questions: All 310 Topics Explained

One of the most reassuring things about the Einbürgerungstest — Germany’s naturalization test — is that there are no surprises. Every question you could possibly face on test day comes from a fixed, published catalog of exactly 310 questions. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), which runs the test, makes the entire catalog public, and it even offers a free official sample test (Musterfragebogen) so you can see the real format before you register.

That transparency changes how you should study. Instead of guessing what “German civics” might mean, you can work through a finite list, understand the themes behind it, and walk into the test center already knowing you have seen every question before. This article breaks down the anatomy of the catalog: what the 310 questions actually cover, how the three official topic areas differ, why the state-specific questions trip people up, and what changed when BAMF added 10 new questions in spring 2024.

The anatomy of the catalog: 300 + 10

The official question catalog consists of two parts:

• 300 general questions about German politics, law, history, and society. These are identical everywhere in Germany.
• 10 state-specific questions for each Bundesland (federal state). You only need to learn the 10 questions for the state where you take the test — so the catalog is 310 questions for you, even though BAMF maintains 160 state questions across all 16 states.

On test day, your paper — the Testheft (test booklet) — contains 33 questions drawn from this pool: 30 general questions plus 3 questions about your Bundesland. Every question offers four answer options, exactly one of which is correct. You have 60 minutes, and you pass with 17 correct answers, which works out to roughly 52%. Around 90% of candidates pass on the first attempt, largely because the catalog is public and the pass mark is forgiving. If you want the full rules — who has to take the test, exemptions, and how it fits into naturalization — start with our complete guide to the German citizenship test.

One more piece of good news: the same 310-question catalog powers the Leben in Deutschland test, the final exam of the BAMF orientation course. If you are also weighing that route, our comparison of the Einbürgerungstest and the Leben in Deutschland test explains how one test can cover both permanent residence and citizenship.

The three official topic areas

BAMF organizes the 300 general questions into three thematic blocks. Understanding what each block is really testing helps you study with intent rather than memorizing 300 disconnected facts.

1. Politics in a democracy

This is the largest block, and it is the backbone of the test. It covers the political and legal order of the Federal Republic: the Grundgesetz (Basic Law, Germany’s constitution), fundamental rights, how laws are made, and how power is distributed.

Expect themes such as:

• The Basic Law and fundamental rights. What freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and human dignity mean in practice; which rights apply to everyone and which are reserved for citizens.
• Elections and participation. Who may vote in Bundestag elections, what “free, equal, and secret” elections mean, how often federal elections take place, and what political parties do.
• Federalism and institutions. The division of responsibilities between the federation and the 16 Bundesländer, the roles of the Bundestag, Bundesrat, Federal President, and Federal Chancellor, and how the Federal Constitutional Court protects the constitution.
• The rule of law. Separation of powers, independence of courts, and why the state itself is bound by law.

If a question sounds abstract, ask yourself which democratic principle it is probing. Almost every question in this block traces back to a handful of core ideas: dignity, democracy, federalism, rule of law, and the social state.

2. History and responsibility

The second block deals with German history — not as trivia, but as the foundation of the country’s self-understanding. The emphasis falls heavily on the twentieth century.

Key themes include:

• National Socialism. When the Nazi dictatorship began, what characterized it, and how it destroyed democracy and persecuted minorities.
• The Holocaust and remembrance. The persecution and murder of European Jews, and how Germany commemorates the victims today. Germany’s acknowledgment of its special historical responsibility is not just a test topic; since the 2024 reform of the nationality law it is also woven into the citizenship process itself, as our overview of the 2026 German citizenship requirements explains.
• Division and reunification. The founding of the two German states after 1945, life in the GDR, the Berlin Wall, the peaceful revolution of 1989, and reunification in 1990.

This block rewards understanding a timeline rather than isolated dates. If you can narrate the arc — Weimar Republic, Nazi dictatorship, war and Holocaust, division, reunification — most questions become straightforward.

3. People and society

The third block is the most practical. It tests whether you know how everyday life in Germany is organized:

• Living together. Equality of men and women, protection of marriage and family, and the principle that religious freedom applies to all faiths — as does the separation of religion and state.
• Religion and pluralism. Which religious holidays exist, what religious pluralism means in a secular state.
• Education and work. Compulsory schooling, vocational training, employees’ rights, and the role of works councils and unions.
• Everyday civics. Insurance systems, what to do in administrative situations, and the rights of parents and children.

Many candidates find this block the easiest, because much of it mirrors daily experience of living in Germany. Still, do not skip it — the phrasing of the official questions can be more precise than everyday intuition.

The state questions: small block, easy to underestimate

Three of your 33 questions come from the 10-question set for your Bundesland. People routinely underestimate them, for an understandable reason: they are the only part of the catalog you cannot absorb from general news and daily life. You may know perfectly well how the Bundestag works and still have no idea what your state’s coat of arms depicts.

The state questions follow a predictable pattern across all 16 states. You should be able to answer, for your state:

• What the state parliament is called (Landtag in most states; Bürgerschaft in Bremen and Hamburg; Abgeordnetenhaus in Berlin) and roughly what it does.
• What the coat of arms looks like — these questions are often shown with images of four coats of arms to choose from.
• What the state capital is.
• Who heads the state government — the Minister-President (or, in the city-states, the Governing Mayor or First Mayor as applicable), and which politician currently holds the office.

Ten questions sound trivial next to 300, but the math is unforgiving: 3 of your 33 questions, nearly a tenth of the test, come from this tiny pool. Learning 10 questions cold is one of the highest-return study investments you can make. Note that the head-of-government question depends on who is actually in office, so make sure you are studying a current version of your state’s set. LebenPro keeps the state-specific questions for all 16 Bundesländer up to date in the app, so you can drill exactly the 10 questions that apply to you alongside the 300 general ones.

The 10 newest questions: Jewish life, antisemitism, and Israel (spring 2024)

In March/April 2024, following the October 7, 2023 attacks and the surge in antisemitic incidents that followed, BAMF revised the catalog and added 10 new questions. The total stayed at 310, because the catalog was revised rather than expanded. The new questions cover three themes:

These questions are now regular members of the catalog and can appear on any test paper. If you studied from materials printed before spring 2024, they will be missing — one of several reasons to prefer up-to-date digital practice over old PDFs. The BAMF Einbürgerung pages reflect the current official catalog.

How the questions are phrased — and how distractors work

Every question follows the same format: a short prompt, four answer options, one correct answer. There are no open-ended questions, no essays, and no oral component. A few patterns are worth knowing:

• Distractors are plausible, not absurd. A question about the length of a Bundestag term will offer several realistic numbers, not obviously silly ones. You need actual knowledge, but never obscure knowledge.
• Some questions are negative. Watch for phrasings like “What is not …” or “Which statement is false” — under time pressure, these catch people who skim.
• Some questions use images, most commonly the coat-of-arms questions in the state block and questions showing ballots or symbols.
• The German is deliberately plain. The test targets roughly B1-level reading. If you can handle everyday official German, the language itself should not be the obstacle — the content is what you study.

Because there are always four options and exactly one is correct, elimination is powerful: even partial knowledge often removes two distractors, turning a guess into a coin flip or better. And since only correct answers count — there is no penalty for wrong ones — you should never leave a question blank.

How to use the catalog effectively

Knowing that all 310 questions are public is only an advantage if you use it well. A few principles:

Work through the whole catalog at least once. With a pass mark of 17 out of 33, you do not need perfection, but seeing every question once removes the fear of the unknown. Most people can comfortably cover the catalog in a few weeks of short daily sessions — our 4-week study plan for the Einbürgerungstest lays out a day-by-day schedule.

Study by topic, not by question number. The catalog’s questions cluster around repeated concepts. Learn the concept once — say, how Bundestag elections work — and you have effectively answered several questions at a stroke.

Understand, don’t just memorize. Especially for non-native German speakers, memorizing German sentences you do not understand is fragile. If English explanations help, LebenPro provides translations and plain-English explanations for the official questions, so you learn the underlying fact rather than a string of words.

Drill your weak areas and your state questions. Track which topics you miss and return to them. And again: the 10 state questions are the cheapest points on the test.

Finish with mock exams. Simulate the real thing — 33 mixed questions, 60 minutes — until scoring 25+ feels routine. The real pass mark of 17 will then feel like a wide safety margin.

When you feel ready, the practical side takes over: finding a test center, paying the €25 fee, and knowing what to expect in the room. We cover all of that in our guide to registering for the Einbürgerungstest, test day, and results.

FAQ

Are the Einbürgerungstest questions really published in advance?

Yes. All 310 questions — 300 general plus 10 for your Bundesland — are published by BAMF, which also offers a free online question catalog and an official sample test. Your 33 test questions are drawn exclusively from this pool, so there are no surprise questions.

How many of the 310 questions do I need to study?

All of them, ideally — but remember you only need your own state’s 10 questions, not all 160 state questions. On the test itself you must answer 17 of 33 correctly, so you do not need to master every question perfectly; broad familiarity plus solid topic understanding is enough for most people.

What are the new questions added in 2024 about?

In spring 2024, BAMF added 10 questions on Jewish life in Germany (4), antisemitism (4), and Israel’s right to exist together with Germany’s special responsibility for Israel (2). Example topics include which cities have the largest Jewish communities (Berlin and Munich) and the fact that Holocaust denial is punishable by up to 5 years’ imprisonment or a fine. The catalog total remained 310.

Are the state-specific questions hard?

Not intrinsically — they follow a fixed pattern (state parliament, coat of arms, capital, head of the state government). They feel hard only because daily life rarely teaches them. Since 3 of your 33 questions come from this pool of just 10, learning them thoroughly is quick and pays off disproportionately.

Is the test only available in German?

Yes, the official test is in German only, at a plain, roughly B1 reading level. You can, however, prepare with English translations and explanations so you understand what each question is actually asking before you memorize the German wording.

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Ready to see every question before test day? Download LebenPro to practice all 310 official questions — including your Bundesland’s 10 state questions and the newest 2024 additions — with English explanations, mock exams, and progress tracking that shows you exactly when you are ready to book.