I am a senior (50+), tenured at a German (state) university, deadwood and BWL. I have read so many threads about this country that I decided to collect some information (modeled along the very interesting LAC thread). The job market in Germany is very different from the US one, at least from my perspective, so let me share my opinion. I can only say something about state universities, although I know some friends at private universities. I urge my HRM-colleagues to add their information/view to this thread and to correct me and I ask all trolls to write their stuff anywhere else.
1. All what has been said about noise and information asymmetry applies to the German market as well. The market is far from perfect, much smaller then the US market and probably not that competitive. In particular, it works very differently.
2. Jobs in Germany are not distributed via something like AFA or FMA. A tenured position becomes available only if the university announces it, mostly in ZEIT or the usual online outlets. Usually this opportunity comes up if the chair holder dies, retires or a new position is established (very seldom and then a very long and tedious process). I have seen sub fields with not one single offering for 18 months countrywide.
3. Tenured positions come in two Besoldungsgruppen: W2 and W3. Difference is salary (and pension) and, for universities, the "Mitarbeiter-Ausstattung". For example, in my university a W2 can only negotiate about salary and not about Mitarbeiter. A W3 can expect one more Mitarbeiter from the Kanzler, at least for five years. During the hiring process it is not possible to change from W2 to W3.
Base salary differs by the Bundesland, add-ons are possible ("Zuschuss" - comes in three drawers: "aus Anlass von Berufungsverhandlungen", this is what you negotiate; "Funktionszulage", this is for being dean, president etc; "für besondere Leistungen", usually a pittance if established at all). I have had positions at different universities and I know the salary of several people. From my perspective the difference in salaries at universities is not very large. Also, between subfields salaries also vary not much. Also, Finance/BWL is in general not better paid then VWL or Marketing etc.
You get a good prior by looking at the website of the Deutsche Hochschulverband, they have collected data from all Bundesländer (average, not median - this curve is skewed / but do not look for "Besoldungsdurchschnitt", this is a strange legal concept, look for "durchschnittliche Gehälter"). These averages are across all fields, but VWL and in particular BWL lead the ranks. So taking this average is a good prior for the first negotiation.
You can re-negotiate your salary ONLY if you have another offer (except for the usual increase of salary for all civil servants, expect 1-3% p.a.). That is why even tenured professors still apply for open positions and also move. In the early days there was even a system of how much your salary is allowed to increase by moving (and also at how much it is allowed to increase if you reject the offer and stay!). Today, there is no rule but from my perspective many university presidents take these old rules as a benchmark. I have hardly seen someone increasing his salary by more than 10k€ per move; nevertheless souther universities (Bavaria and Munich in particular) do pay more than poorer, norther universities. There is no formal upper bound for salary but because universities have a ceiling for the sum of all salaries do not expect to get above B10-level (look up "Besoldungsordnung B10", Wikipedia). As far as I know today there are less than three people per Bundesland having more than B10 and these are Nobel laureates, Leibniz-Preisträger, people with HRM-offers and the like (there was a "parlamentarische Anfrage" by the Greens, if I remember correctly).
At Fachhochschulen salary is much lower. Since people there usually do not move...See full post