What is on the German citizenship test?
Vishwen Labs
Every question that can appear on the Einbürgerungstest is published. BAMF's Gesamtfragenkatalog holds 300 general questions in three areas, Leben in der Demokratie, Geschichte und Verantwortung and Mensch und Gesellschaft, and 10 questions for each of the 16 Länder, 460 in all. A candidate faces a pool of 310, the 300 plus the 10 for their Land, and the 33 in the Testheft are drawn from it word for word. That makes the test unusual among citizenship tests: there is nothing to guess about, only 310 questions to know.
The three general areas
Leben in der Demokratie covers the Grundgesetz and the basic rights, elections and parties, the Bundestag and Bundesrat, the Bundespräsident and the Bundeskanzler, the Länder and the municipalities, the courts, and the social state: who does what, who is elected how, and which rights protect whom. Geschichte und Verantwortung runs from the Weimar Republic through the National Socialist dictatorship and the Holocaust, the war, the division of Germany, the GDR and the Wall, reunification in 1990, and European integration. Mensch und Gesellschaft covers living together: religion and its freedom, family and marriage, school and work, equal rights, discrimination and how to report it, and everyday duties from taxes to registration. The three areas hold about 100 questions each.
The Bundesland questions
Each Land has ten questions of its own: its coat of arms, its capital, the name of its parliament, the office of its head of government, its neighbours, its colours. Three of them appear in every Testheft, chosen for the Land where the candidate has their Erstwohnsitz, so the pool a candidate must know is 310 questions, not 460. The Bundesland guide goes through them.
What changed in 2024
In March 2024 the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced that Jewish life in Germany, Israel's right to exist and antisemitism would carry more weight in the test, and ten questions on those topics entered the catalogue that spring; the Einbürgerungstestverordnung was amended on 21 June 2024 to match. BAMF's catalogue page carries a version dated 26 May 2025. The app's 460 questions follow the current catalogue, and the questions will be revised again whenever BAMF publishes a new one.
How the app's chapters map to it
The app's four chapters are the catalogue's four parts: Politik in der Demokratie, Geschichte und Verantwortung and Mensch und Gesellschaft with 100 questions each, and Mein Bundesland with 160, ten per Land. Thirty-two lessons sit alongside them, five, five and six on the general areas and one for each Land, and every question names BAMF as its source and carries an explanation in German and nine other languages.
Where to read the official catalogue
At BAMF. The Online-Testcenter offers the full catalogue as an interactive quiz, with your Bundesland selected, showing the right answer after each question, and a Musterfragebogen you can fill in as a trial. The Gesamtfragenkatalog is also a PDF download. Both are free; the Bundesverwaltungsamt says so in as many words. A prep app adds explanations, translations, drills and a mock; it does not add questions, because there are none to add.
Einbürgerungstest bestehen is an independent study aid and is not affiliated with the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) or any other German authority. The test questions are BAMF's published Gesamtfragenkatalog, which anyone may practise free at BAMF's Online-Testcenter; the app's lessons, explanations and translations are its own.
Questions people also ask
Are the real Einbürgerungstest questions published?
Yes, all of them. BAMF publishes the Gesamtfragenkatalog as a PDF and as an interactive catalogue in its Online-Testcenter, and the 33 questions in your Testheft are taken from it unchanged.
Are there questions about Israel and antisemitism on the German citizenship test?
Yes. Ten questions on Jewish life in Germany, Israel's right to exist and antisemitism were added to the catalogue in spring 2024, and the Einbürgerungstestverordnung was amended on 21 June 2024. They can appear in any Testheft like the other general questions.
