The German education system is extremely complex and diversified. This is why I will try to break it down to its most common features, standards, and a general guideline for how it works as a blueprint.
German students usually attend kindergarten from 3 years until their first day of school which can take up to 5 years where children play together, spent time, and learn very basic standards of tying their shoe lashes, keep their environment clean, mutual respect for each other, celebrate common German festivals and are faced with what it means to be German for the first time outside of their families. Even though some children already learn how to read, write, calculate, or some very basic facts about nature, culture, and other aspects, this is not the norm for all kindergartens in Germany.
School enrollment starts as early as 5 years and can in rare cases be as late as 8 years. (It depends on the birthday and other factors like family, social-emotional development, diseases, etc.)
Primary School
Students in Germany are usyally getting enrolled into primary school by the age of 6, some with 5, others with 8. The rarest cases would be with 4 or 8 but it might happen under special circumstances.
Primary education is between 4 to six years long and students are often seperated by classes 1, 2, 3 and 4 and into different groups of 10 to 25 children by letters 'a' to 'd'.
In primary school, students have the compulsory subjects German, Mathematics, Social Studies, Arts/Music, Physical Education, Ethics/Religion, and English. Some schools offer makerspace education, others start earlier with sciences.
Special Integrated Primary Education Systems
Regularly most primary education systems in Germany lead up to grade 6 but there are states where middle school starts at grade 5 and others where primary and middle school are combimed into a general education school up to grade 9, 10, or even 12/13.
Middle School
In those federal states of Germany where primary school ends after 4 years, a standarized middle school will take over from grade 5 to grade 10. In Saxony, you have the option to join a high school right away that leads you in 7 years to the German Abitur. In other federal states, you will need to attend a middle school from grade 7 to grade 10 first, obtain a middle school degree ('Mittlere Reife') to move on into the 2 to 3 years of German Abitur preparation.
In middle school the subjects can get very diversified. All students need to take German (4 periods a week), English (3), Mathematics (4), History (1), Politics (1), Geography (1), Religion/Ethics (1), Arts (1), Music (1), Biology (1), Chemistry (1), Physics (1), Physical Education (2), and IT (1) every year. Other subjects and lessons can fill up the schedule like two to four more periods of an additional language (usually a European language like French, Spanish, Russian, etc.), Astronomy, an additional natural science course, additional classes for core subjects, business, etc. The school will usually hand the parents an offer and let them decide with the kid together which elective class they would choose for the rest of the school year. Once chosen, the course will be fixed and a transfer is only possible under very strict circumstances that are outlined by and need to be discussed with the principal and the parents.
Job school
After successfully passing through middle school, students can either decide to find a job and sign up for a job preparation school and find a nearby company to learn about the job and obtain a job degree after 2 to 4 years. (Apprentice to Master (!) degree)
(!) In that case, master is not an academic but an artisanal or technical term known as a 'Meister'.
Some jobs require a more technical, or business direction and therefore students will be asked to complete more courses into mathematical, business, administration or accounting direction before qualifying for a job.
High school
If students choose the academic direction, they will join into the German Abitur for 2 to three years at a German high school. In general, students will choose their subjects for the next two to three years in grade 10 from different categories.
All German high school students have the requirement to study German Language and Literature, English and a second foreign language, Mathematics, History, one Social Studies (Geography, Politics, Psychology, etc.), two Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, IT/CS) and Physical Education.
Two to four of those subjects need to be chosen as entensive courses with two more periods a week and extensive reading and writing assignments. Some schools can also offer more regional and divers subjects to choose from. It depends on the availability of teachers, material, and preparation.
Some high schools are specialized in old languages and need to offer Latin and Old Greek or even Hebrew as languages, others are more international and need to offer bilingual courses in certain subjects.
Abitur requirements
In order to obtain a German Abitur, students need to pass at least 4 exams. The exams in their extended courses will be all written exams, the third one will also be a written exam and the fourth one is usually a presentation, project or oral exam. Important is that students need to have one exam in each subject area (Languages, Social Studies, Sciences).
Example:
A student A takes German and Biology as extended written exams, as third exam they can either choose a language (English or another foreign language), or a Social Study. If they choose a language, the fourth exam needs to be a Social Study, if they choose the language the fourth can be in any subject they like.
A student B chose English and Arts as extended written exams, as third exam they must take Mathematics and the fourth component must be a Social Studies subject because both they extended courses are from the language/musical category and if that means Mathematics becomes compulsory as third component and cannot be substituted by another science subject.
Grade levels
Germany has a grading scale from 1 to 6, 1 being the best and six being the worst. (like from A to F with an additional E on the scale)
The pencentages are chosen by the federal state or the school and there are usually no common standards rather than more than 85% can be a 1 and less than 20% should be a 6. Some argue, however, that a 6 only means 'nothing' and therefore a 5 should be given from 1%.
Educational Standards
Even though the federal states in Germany have the full power to decide about their respective educational system, there is a meeting between the sixteen culture ministers once in a while in the KMK ('Kultusministerkonferenz' - culture minister conference) where standards and regional differences are discussed and different standards are tried to be equalled out between the different states.
In the last twenty years that led to the common 'Bildungsstandards' for certain subjects like German, English, and Mathematics at least, a common pool of tasks for the Abitur exams, and the development of equal and comparable standards for high school graduation requirements (number of extended courses said to be no higher than 3 anymore). There is some progress in developing a common German education system with equal and comparable standards from Rostock to Frankfurt/Main.
The 'Bildungsstandards' can be found on the website of the KMK alongside with all information about the German education system in German and English:
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