Habilitation
The common method to get a professorship at a university is the habilitation. This habilitation consists of a postdoctoral thesis, the habilitation treatise, and a public lecture. The doctorate is the precondition for the habilitation. Regulations of the habilitation are constituted in the University & College Acts of the Federal States and in the habilitation regulations of the respective universities.
Funding
Habilitations are generally financed by positions at universities or non-university research organisations. Furthermore, funding is supported by scholar- and fellowships of smaller foundations which are related to a specific field or by the research scholarships of the German Research Foundation (DFG).
After a successful habilitation, independent research and teaching at universities is possible. However, for this purpose there has to be an approval for the professorship which is part of an appointment procedure at the university.
Appointments of professors in general are regulated by the University & College Acts of the Federal States, but the actual appointment is made by the recruiting universities themselves. Usually, one cannot get a professorship at the university at which the habilitation thesis was written.
The possibility of a “cumulative habilitation” can be given through the habilitation regulation of the university. Therefore, the post-doctorate hands in a number of scientific papers and publications which are graded equivalent to a habilitation paper.
“academic dependence”
The post-doctorate is given a supervisor for his habilitation, who is normally a university professor. A disadvantage of this supervision – depending on the relation between post-doc and professor – can be a minor autonomy in realising research projects and some kind of “academic dependence” on the supervisor.
After the successful habilitation the candidate can entitle himself “Privatdozent” (Adj. Professor). The detailed conditions regarding the title are fixed in the habilitation regulations of the departments and may vary.
