Where to Study Economics in German in Germany: From the Top Faculties to NC-Free Universities

"Where do you study economics in German in Germany?" is really two questions, and mixing them up costs years: (1) where is it best? and (2) where can I realistically get in? This guide answers them separately. We start with the prestige order, then give you the universities with no NC — no grade threshold at the door.

The numbers come from the entries of Hochschulkompass, Germany's official programme catalogue. Excluding distance learning, teacher-training and minor-subject variants, there are 109 German-taught economics bachelor programmes at 64 universities — and 70 of them, at 43 institutions, are open admission (zulassungsfrei).

#First, learn the right name: VWL or Wirtschaftswissenschaften?

The German-taught economics bachelor appears under two names, and that difference decides your application:

• Volkswirtschaftslehre (VWL) — economics proper: macro, micro, econometrics, economic policy.
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften — the broad programme combining economics and business administration.

Here is the crucial part: at the same university the admission rules for the two can differ. At Bonn, Wirtschaftswissenschaften is NC-restricted while Volkswirtschaftslehre is open admission. The same pattern holds at LMU Munich, Tübingen, Freiburg, Konstanz and Stuttgart. In other words, you can enter one of the country's strongest economics faculties without a grade threshold, simply by choosing the right programme name. Applicants who do not know this apply to the NC programme in the same building — and get rejected.

#The most prestigious economics faculties, in order

A warning first: a general world ranking does not measure departmental strength. A university can sit in the global top 100 on the strength of medicine and physics without having a strong economics faculty. The order below follows research reputation in economics; the university's overall world position sits in its own column.

World positions show the best rank across QS/THE/ARWU and change from year to year; the admission mode is set afresh each semester. Verify it on the university's own page before applying.

Bonn is widely regarded as Germany's strongest address in economics: theoretical depth, the Bonn Graduate School of Economics, a dense research culture. Mannheim is the centre of quantitative economics — closely tied to the ZEW institute, heavy on econometrics. LMU Munich combines a broad faculty with proximity to the ifo Institute. Frankfurt offers an advantage no ranking captures: the European Central Bank and the financial sector are in the same city, which is unmatched for internships and first jobs.

#The golden overlap: top faculty and no NC

This is the most valuable list for an applicant — strong and without a grade threshold:

These six names show why "good university = high NC" does not hold in Germany. The NC is not a quality measure but a demand measure: if applications exceed places, an NC appears; if not, there is none.

#Easiest to enter: universities with open-admission German-taught economics

The catalogue lists 70 open-admission programmes at 43 institutions. After removing distance learning, private providers, the armed forces university and teacher-training variants, these public universities remain:

Bavaria: LMU Munich · Regensburg · Würzburg · Bayreuth · Augsburg · Eichstätt-Ingolstadt · TH Deggendorf Baden-Württemberg: Tübingen · Freiburg · Stuttgart (VWL) · Konstanz · Ulm North Rhine-Westphalia: Bonn · TU Dortmund · Duisburg-Essen · Siegen · Paderborn Hesse & Rhineland-Palatinate: TU Darmstadt · Gießen · Marburg · Kassel · Trier · RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau Lower Saxony & the north: Göttingen · Kiel · Osnabrück · Oldenburg · Bremen Eastern states: Jena · Magdeburg · Chemnitz · Erfurt · Rostock · Greifswald · Schmalkalden Berlin: Humboldt-Universität (one VWL variant)

If your budget is tight and certainty matters most, Bavaria and the eastern states are the smoothest route: no NC, no tuition, and — outside Munich — low living costs (Regensburg, Würzburg, Bayreuth, Jena, Magdeburg, Greifswald, Rostock).

#What "no NC" does not mean

Do not skip this section: open admission does not mean automatic acceptance. Four requirements remain at the door:

1. German at C1 level. These programmes are taught entirely in German. The standard proof is DSH-2 or TestDaF 4x4. Going from zero to C1 realistically takes 12–24 months — see the German roadmap and TestDaF or DSH.
2. Recognition of your diploma. A foreign school-leaving certificate is often not enough on its own; the anabin assessment decides, and in many cases a Studienkolleg year is required. Details: anabin H+, H+-, H-.
3. uni-assist and deadlines. Even an open-admission programme has application deadlines (usually 15 July for the winter semester, 15 January for the summer semester). International applications mostly go through uni-assist — step-by-step guide.
4. The real selection happens in year one. The door is wide, the corridor is narrow: Mathematik I/II, Statistik and Mikroökonomie thin the cohort out in the first year — and that bites hardest in quantitative faculties like Bonn and Mannheim.

#Money: the Baden-Württemberg trap

On the open-admission list, Tübingen, Freiburg, Konstanz, Stuttgart and Ulm look very attractive — but they all sit in Baden-Württemberg, the state that charges non-EU students roughly €1,500 in tuition per semester. Public universities in the other states charge no tuition at all; you pay only the semester contribution of about €150–350, which usually includes a transport ticket.

So for the very same open-admission VWL bachelor, the gap between Freiburg and Regensburg can reach around €9,000 over the degree. (As of early 2026; the amounts are revised annually — verify before applying.)

#How to choose — a short decision frame

• Aiming at a PhD or research: Bonn, Mannheim, LMU, Cologne. Accept the NC, or use Bonn's open-admission VWL as your way in.
• Aiming at certainty of a place: Regensburg, Würzburg, Bayreuth, Jena, Magdeburg, Rostock, Greifswald — no NC, no tuition.
• Wanting top tier and open admission: Bonn, LMU, Tübingen, Freiburg, Göttingen, Kiel.
• Aiming at a finance career: Frankfurt — there the city builds as much of the career as the university does.
• Prioritising internships and part-time work: large job markets such as Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin.

#Conclusion & honest advice

Studying economics in German is not a battle over grade averages but a question of language and of choosing the right programme. In two sentences: aim for Bonn as the strongest economics faculty — and the lucky part is that its VWL programme carries no NC; if certainty comes first, the open-admission programmes in Bavaria and the eastern states will take you in without any grade threshold. Put your real effort into C1 German and the first-year mathematics — that is where the selection actually happens.

Read on in this series: studying VWL in Germany — the full guide, English-taught economics masters without German, working as an economist and the job market with a VWL degree.

This post was prepared in early 2026 on the basis of Hochschulkompass programme records. Admission mode, fees, deadlines and language requirements can change every semester; verify them on the university's current page before applying.