Hamburg's new extremism rules for municipal employees

Hamburg Senate Forces Employees to Declare Loyalty

Hamburg cracks down on extremism with new civil service loyalty rules

"Hamburg Senate Forces Employees to Declare Loyalty" read our headline in January, reporting on a new declaration that all municipal employees have since been required to sign. In it, they must confirm that over the past three years, they have not supported any "association of persons" classified as extremist—"particularly" those mentioned in the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution's annual report.

The Left Party has now submitted a parliamentary inquiry regarding its implementation. MP Deniz Çelik sought to clarify how often this declaration has been signed and what consequences applicants face if they refuse to sign.

According to the Senate's response, there have been no issues at all. From January 1 to March 31, the city hired a total of 3,334 people, including 992 civil servants and 2,342 salaried employees, among them 399 trainee teachers. "The information sheets and declarations were systematically used and signed as part of every hiring process," the Senate stated. Only in the case of 23 collective-bargaining employees and one civil servant was this omitted "due to an administrative oversight."

The declaration carries weight. New hires must also acknowledge that providing false information could lead to "labor law consequences up to and including summary dismissal." An internal memo from the personnel office suggests these documents are intended to make it easier to "terminate employees in individual cases" should their declarations prove false. Yet in the first quarter of 2026, the Senate reported no evidence of any such cases.

Routine Inquiries to Domestic Intelligence Planned

Hamburg has also announced plans to introduce a "standard inquiry" with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution for all new hires—both civil servants and employees. Applicants will be asked whether the agency holds any relevant information on them. If a match is found, hiring will depend on a case-by-case review by the personnel office. The corresponding "Law to Protect the Civil Service from Anti-Constitutional Influence" has been under debate in the Bürgerschaft (city parliament) for months.

The Hamburg branch of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) opposes the standard inquiry and now feels vindicated. "The Senate must answer whether its excessive density of checks and verifications is going too far," said chairwoman Tanja Chawla. After all, neither the standard inquiries introduced for police applicants in 2020 nor the self-declaration have yet yielded a single hit.

For Deniz Çelik, even the mandatory self-declaration goes too far. "This is an ideological litmus test through the back door," he argued. When applicants are forced to disclose their political activities from recent years, it creates a blanket suspicion. "Anyone who has to justify themselves with such declarations will think twice before pursuing a career in public service."

A reader from Lower Saxony who contacted our website found the declarations equally off-putting. "As a student, I took part in far-left protests and once donated to the Rote Hilfe [a left-wing legal aid organization]," he admitted. Yet he stands by the constitution. "I wouldn't know what to tick on these forms," he said. "Either I'd have to lie, or I'd be asking for trouble."

The Education and Science Workers' Union (GEW) had intended to review the declaration's legality but has not yet released its findings.

The man, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of professional repercussions, is a pedagogue retraining as an IT specialist and could easily see himself working for the city of Hamburg. "But this regulation puts me off," he said. Particularly unsettling, he added, is the declaration's vague wording—while it explicitly references organizations listed in the constitution protection report, it leaves open what other groups might qualify.

Yet there has been no public outcry over this forced declaration of loyalty. In its January edition, the GEW's Hamburg teachers' magazine stated that it was having the personnel office's guidelines "legally reviewed." However, according to GEW spokesperson Fredrik Dehnerdt, the results are "not yet ready for publication."

Time is running short. Hamburg's red-green coalition government is determined to combine self-declarations with routine background checks. During an expert hearing in January, only the specialist invited by the Left Party voiced fundamental criticism. However, Sarah Geiger, the legal expert invited by the Greens at the time, has since written in the Journal of Public Law in Northern Germany that the draft law requires amendments in several areas.

For instance, she argues that the bill fails to sufficiently distinguish between the constitutional loyalty expected of civil servants and that of regular employees. She also notes that the concept of constitutional loyalty itself is not adequately defined. According to Geiger, there is further ambiguity regarding the precise scope of the domestic intelligence agency's responsibilities.

This means the legislation will likely need further refinement. Originally, it was supposed to have entered into force by now. But according to the SPD parliamentary group, the vote is now scheduled for July 7.