Licensed or free: which crafts belong on the Handwerksrolle and who can be entered

Jonas is a journeyman tiler who has spent eight years with the same firm, five of them as foreman. A developer offers him a first contract worth €14,000, and Jonas registers his business with the municipality. He has no idea that he first needs to be entered on the Handwerksrolle: tile, slab and mosaic layers appear in Annex A of the Crafts Code, and without an entry the business is simply not permitted.

Three lists, three regimes

Anyone who wants to run a craft business independently in Germany looks first not at the Trade Regulation Act but at the Crafts Code, the Handwerksordnung or HwO. It sorts craft trades into three groups, each with its own consequence at start-up: entry with proof of qualification, a mere notification, or no chamber involvement at all.

The first group is in Annex A, titled there as the list of trades that may be carried on as licensed crafts. Under section 1(1) HwO such a craft may be run as a fixed-location business only by someone entered on the Handwerksrolle, the craft register. This applies to natural persons as well as to legal persons and partnerships.

The second and third groups are in Annex B. Its Part 1 lists the free crafts, its Part 2 the craft-like trades. For both, the law requires neither a master craftsman certificate nor an equivalent qualification. Anyone who starts or ends one, however, must notify the chamber of crafts without undue delay under section 18(1).

In its current version, published in the Federal Law Gazette in 2020, Annex A contains 53 numbered entries. It begins with bricklayers and concrete builders and ends with organ and harmonium builders. In between are the major construction and finishing trades, the vehicle and electrical trades, the food crafts and the health crafts.

• No. 3 carpenters and No. 4 roofers
• No. 10 painters and varnishers
• No. 12 chimney sweeps
• No. 20 motor vehicle technicians
• No. 24 plumbers and heating engineers, No. 25 electrical technicians
• No. 27 joiners, No. 30 bakers, No. 32 butchers
• No. 33 opticians to No. 37 dental technicians
• No. 38 hairdressers, No. 42 tile, slab and mosaic layers

In Annex B many numbers are marked as no longer applicable because the trades concerned were regrouped. Part 1 includes, for example, watchmakers, gold and silversmiths, photographers, bookbinders, undertakers and beauticians. Part 2 includes, for example, floor layers, alteration tailors, ice-cream makers and the installation of standardised building components such as windows and doors.

The neighbouring entries are instructive. Tile layers and parquet layers are in Annex A, while floor layers are in Part 2 of Annex B. The exact shape of the planned offer therefore decides the regime: someone who only lays carpet and vinyl flooring needs a notification, someone who lays parquet needs an entry.

When a business falls under the licensing requirement

The name of a trade in Annex A is not enough on its own. Section 1(2) HwO requires two things: the business must be run in a craft manner, and it must cover the trade completely or at least carry out activities that are essential to that trade. The law calls them essential activities.

The same provision lists in three points which activities are not essential. Under point 1, anything that can be learned in up to three months. Under point 2, anything that takes longer but is incidental to the overall picture of the craft. Under point 3, anything that did not originate from a licensed craft.

Simple activities may therefore be offered without an entry, and the law expressly allows several of them to be combined. The limit is set by an overall assessment: if the sum of the activities shows that they are essential to a particular licensed craft, the entry is required after all.

For planning purposes this means that anyone drafting a list of services should check each item for whether it can be learned quickly and is incidental to the craft. In case of doubt, the chamber of crafts will advise. A written assessment before the start is cheaper than later proceedings for unauthorised practice of a craft.

The licensing requirement reaches beyond the classic master's workshop. Under section 2 HwO it also applies to ancillary craft businesses linked to an industrial, trading or other undertaking, and to commercial businesses of public bodies that do craft work for third parties. Anyone who attaches a workshop to a retail business must therefore check it separately.

Under section 3 HwO an ancillary business is disregarded if it works for third parties only to an insignificant extent. That holds while, over one year, it stays within the average working time of a full-time business in that craft without assistants. Auxiliary businesses serving only the main business or providing customary accessory services are also excluded.

Under section 5 HwO, someone already entered may also carry out work in other licensed crafts if it is technically or professionally connected with their offer or complements it economically. Think of work that rounds off one's own offer, such as a plumber closing a wall opened for a pipe. Whether the connection holds depends on the case.

The standard route: the master examination

The standard route onto the craft register runs through section 7(1a) HwO: the register takes anyone who has passed the master examination in the craft to be carried on or in a related licensed craft. Which crafts count as related is laid down by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs by regulation, not by the chamber case by case.

Under section 45(2) the master examination is meant to establish whether a candidate can practise a licensed craft to master level, run it independently and train apprentices properly. Passing it also confers the further-training qualification Bachelor Professional. For founders that is also an argument with banks and customers.

Under section 45(3) the examination has four independent parts. Part I tests the master-level performance of essential activities, Part II technical theory. Part III covers business, commercial and legal knowledge, Part IV the vocational and work-teaching knowledge needed for training apprentices.

Under section 49(1), admission to the master examination is normally granted to anyone who has passed the journeyman examination or a corresponding final examination in the same or a related craft. Subsection 2 also opens the route for other qualifications plus several years of work in the target craft. The chair of the examination board decides on admission.

The title is protected. Under section 51, only someone who has passed the master examination in a licensed craft may use the designation Meister or Meisterin in connection with that craft. Anyone entered through a practice authorisation or an exceptional authorisation may therefore work, but may not call themselves a master.

Equivalent qualifications and foreign credentials

Section 7(2) HwO accepts further qualifications. Engineers and graduates of technical universities and of state or state-recognised technical and design colleges are entered with the craft that matches the focus of their degree or school. The chamber of crafts decides whether the conditions are met.

Other German state or state-recognised examinations that are at least equivalent to the master examination are treated alike. For university diplomas from another EU state, an EEA state or Switzerland, the law requires a course of at least three years. Where vocational training is required alongside the degree, it must also have been completed.

Under section 7(3), anyone holding an equivalence determination under section 50c for the craft is also entered. Through section 9 the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs may additionally regulate when nationals of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland receive an exceptional authorisation or may provide cross-border services without a German establishment.

Without a master certificate: the practice authorisation for experienced journeymen

For many founders, section 7b HwO is the most important route. It gives experienced journeymen a practice authorisation, the Ausübungsberechtigung, on the basis of which they are entered on the register under section 7(7) without taking the master examination. The conditions are set out in three points and must all be met.

Under point 1 the applicant needs a passed journeyman examination in the craft to be carried on or in a related craft. A final examination in a corresponding recognised training occupation is also sufficient. Without such a qualification, the route through section 7b remains closed.

Under point 2 the applicant must have worked for a total of six years in that craft, in a related craft or in a corresponding occupation. Of those, a total of four years must have been in a senior position. The years need not be consecutive; the law speaks of a total in each case.

Under point 3 the work carried out must have included at least one essential activity of the craft for which the authorisation is sought. Someone who has spent six years doing only peripheral tasks does not meet the condition, even if the job was formally in the right craft.

The business, commercial and legal knowledge that a master proves in Part III is, under section 7b(1a), normally deemed established by the professional experience. Where the experience is not sufficient for that, the knowledge must be proven through courses or in another way.

Not every craft is open to this route. Excluded are number 12 of Annex A, chimney sweeps, and numbers 33 to 37: opticians, hearing-aid acousticians, orthopaedic technicians, orthopaedic shoemakers and dental technicians. Anyone wanting to found one of these crafts needs the master examination, an equivalent qualification or an exceptional authorisation.

The authorisation is granted on application by the higher administrative authority after hearing the chamber of crafts. State governments may designate another authority, so it is worth asking the chamber beforehand where to file. Anyone holding an equivalence determination under section 40a can only count experience gained after it.

The exceptional authorisation and the authorisation for a second craft

Section 8 HwO is the safety valve for cases none of the other routes cover. An exceptional authorisation must be granted where the knowledge and skills needed to practise independently have been proven and an exceptional case exists. Previous professional experience and activities are taken into account.

Under the law, an exceptional case exists where taking the master examination at the time of the application or later would be an unreasonable burden. The law does not define exhaustively what is unreasonable; it depends on the personal situation. An exceptional case also exists where certain further-training examinations under section 42 HwO or section 53 BBiG have been passed.

The authorisation may carry conditions or requirements, be time-limited or be restricted to an essential part of a craft's activities. Proof for that part then suffices. As with section 7b, the higher administrative authority decides after hearing the chamber, which must also consult the guild if the applicant asks for it.

Under section 8(4), not only the applicant but also the chamber of crafts may take the decision to the administrative courts. A granted authorisation can therefore be challenged by the chamber, and the chamber must be joined to every such proceeding.

Someone who already runs one craft and wants to add a second does not need an exceptional authorisation. Section 7a HwO gives them a practice authorisation for another trade in Annex A or for its essential activities if they prove the necessary knowledge and skills. Here too, previous professional experience counts.

Entry, deemed approval and the craft card

Under section 10(1) HwO the entry is made on application or ex officio. If the conditions are met, the chamber must make the entry within three months. The period only starts once the application has been received together with the complete documents. An incomplete application therefore does not set it running.

If the chamber does not make the entry within that period, the entry is deemed to have been made. For this the law refers to the deemed-approval rules of the Administrative Procedure Act. For founders this means that anyone who files a complete application and records the date of receipt can plan the start reliably.

Before the entry, the chamber notifies the business owner under section 11 against acknowledgement of receipt and, if the owner also belongs to the chamber of industry and commerce, notifies that chamber as well. After the entry, it issues a certificate under section 10(2), the craft card. The chamber sets its fee with the approval of the highest state authority.

The craft card shows the owner's name and address, the business seat, the craft or crafts and the date of entry. If a company runs the craft with an operations manager, that person's name is added as well. The second module shows how this model works.

If the conditions later cease to apply, the entry is deleted under section 13 on application or ex officio, and the craft card must be returned. The chamber must give advance notice of the intended deletion against acknowledgement of receipt, so that the business can respond.