The number of federal employees who have voluntarily resigned and relinquished their civil servant status has significantly increased in recent years.
According to the German Federal Ministry of the Interior’s response to a written question by FDP member Konstantin Kuhle, published in the Rheinische Post, 996 employees requested to be discharged in 2024. This is not an isolated trend, as over 1,000 employees had also done so in both 2022 and 2023. Since 2022, the number of employees seeking to leave the federal service has roughly doubled, with 574 employees doing so in 2020, according to the ministry’s response.
The majority of these voluntary resignations come from the Federal Police and Customs Administration, with nearly 3,000 and 1,000 applications, respectively, from 2020 to 2024. In contrast, the ministries of the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of Finance saw relatively few requests for discharge.
“The numbers show that the public service has a problem attracting young people long-term” said FDP Fraktionsvize Kuhle. “If hundreds of applicants each year quit the service at the Federal Police or Customs Administration, it’s something we should be thinking about.” Kuhle suggested that police officers often miss the societal appreciation they once had.