The hilarious story of the “truly incomprehensible” Heilpraktiker (and teacher)

It could only happen in Germany: a teacher reportedly spent 16 years on paid sick leave while allegedly working as a Heilpraktiker—a licensed but medically unqualified practitioner—and even winning awards for a healthcare start-up.

Regular readers will know that I have written extensively about the Heilpraktiker profession. It occupies a uniquely place in German healthcare: a profession created by the Nazis that still enjoys official recognition despite requiring no medical degree and often embracing treatments for which scientific evidence is, at best, optional.

Now the Heilpraktiker profession has surfaced in a hilarious case that reads more like satire than reality. A teacher at a vocational college in Wesel, North Rhine-Westphalia, remained on continuously paid sick leave from 2009 onwards without ever returning to the classroom. This continued for 16 years until a new school administrator stumbled over the case and discovered something extraordinary: although the teacher had repeatedly submitted medical certificates, she had never once been required to undergo an independent medical assessment.

When the school finally requested such an examination, she sued, arguing that the demand violated her civil rights. A German court rejected her claim, describing the circumstances as “truly incomprehensible” and ordered her to pay the school’s legal costs of ~ €2,500.

The baffling case has sparked nationwide debate because it exposes a remarkable weakness in Germany’s civil service system. Teachers who hold civil servant status enjoy extensive employment protections. This even includes continued payment of their full salary during prolonged illness.

The story got more complex when it was noted that, during her many years of sick leave, the teacher established a healthcare start-up and worked as a Heilpraktiker. German civil servants require prior approval for any secondary employment, and working while claiming to be medically unfit inevitably raises questions about the legitimacy of the underlying illness.

So, will the 16 years of salary amounting to about half a million Euros be recuped? Probably not! The legal expert Ralf Delgmann noted that recovering a salary already paid would be extremely difficult. Demonstrating retrospectively that someone was not genuinely incapacitated over a period of 16 years would be an evidential challenge bordering on the impossible.