Details
Probationary licence
During the probationary period what counts is not only how many offences but how each is classified, as an A or a B offence. Consequences run over three stages — and a missed deadline skips them.
Overview
What the probationary period is
A first German licence comes with a probationary period of 2 years from the date it was issued. It is not a restricted licence: the driving entitlement is the same one everybody else has. What differs is what an offence during the period sets in motion.
Time spent holding an equivalent foreign licence counts towards it, and the clock can be suspended by specific events — a seizure of the licence, or an immediately enforceable withdrawal. So the period is not always exactly the calendar span it looks like.
Background
A and B offences
Every offence that reaches the register during the period is classified as either serious or less serious — A or B — and the classification is what drives the measures. One A offence is enough. It takes two B offences to have the same effect.
The classification list works by statutory PARAGRAPH, not by catalogue row number: section A of the relevant annex names 31 provisions, from the drink- and drug-driving provisions through speed, distance, overtaking, priority and red lights. Section B is not a list at all — it is a residual category, which is why nobody can hand you an enumeration of B offences and why this site does not attempt one. Two provisions in section A about negligent injury and death take their classification from the underlying violation rather than carrying their own, which is a derived classification and marked as such in our data set.
Only decisions that are register-worthy count. An offence too small to be entered does not reach this ladder at all — the same threshold that governs points governs this.
Process
The three stages, in order
The measures run over 3 stages, and each one requires a further qualifying offence.
- Stage onethe authority ORDERS an Aufbauseminar, an advanced training course, and extends the probationary period once by 2 years — taking it to 4 in total. The extension fires at this stage, including in the edge case where no course is ordered because the licence has already been withdrawn.
- Stage twoa written warning, together with a RECOMMENDATION to take part in traffic-psychological counselling. The statute puts this as something to be suggested to the driver, and it is not an order — modelling it as compulsory would misstate the provision.
- Stage threea further qualifying offence after the stage-two window leads to withdrawal of the licence.
Key figures
The shortcut nobody wants
Missing the deadline for an ordered course does not move you along the ladder — it takes you off it. Where the seminar is not completed within the period set, the licence is withdrawn directly, without the remaining stages.
Challenging a probationary measure does not suspend it: the statute gives appeals against these measures no suspensive effect. That is a genuine structural difference from the fine itself, where lodging an objection in time does stop the notice becoming final.
After a stage-three withdrawal, a new licence cannot be applied for before 3 months have run — and the period is counted from the date the licence was surrendered, not from the date of the decision.
Two consequences of that ordering are worth spelling out. Surrendering the licence promptly starts the waiting period; holding on to it does not delay the withdrawal, only the clock that lets you apply again. And because the probationary measures run on their own administrative track, they can be in motion while the fine that triggered them is still being argued about — the two proceedings are not waiting for each other.
What does not exist
Neither the seminar nor the counselling has a statutory price
§ 2a(2), § 4(7) StVG
Next step
Alcohol and ‰
The established reading decides whether this is an administrative offence or a crime. The calculator places it, escalates on earlier entries, and applies the zero-alcohol rule for new drivers.
Related offences
Alcohol and drugs
Escalation follows the entries already on the register, not the reading that was measured. The zero-alcohol rule for new drivers has a row of its own.
Speeding
The bands of the speeding table for cars, split by inside and outside built-up areas. A motorway counts as outside — there is no separate motorway table.
Phones and electronic devices
The prohibition covers electronic devices generally, not just phones. The tiers differ according to whether the offence endangered anyone or caused damage.
FAQ