The need is foreseeable: In a few years, an unusually large number of judges and public prosecutors will retire in Thuringia. Many of them got their jobs right after reunification. Attorney General Adams wants to take countermeasures early on.
Erfurt (dpa/th) – Thuringia’s Justice Minister Dirk Adams sees a wave of pensions in the judiciary in the Free State and therefore wants to hire more staff beforehand. “The generational change in the judiciary – not just among judges – is just around the corner. It will hit us with great force from 2028,” said the Green politician of the German Press Agency.
The reason is the hiring wave of lawyers in the 1990s after reunification. “It was a whole generation of judges who went to the new federal states shortly after the second state examination,” said Adams. More than 32 years after reunification, there was “a very concentrated wave of retirements” within a period of about five years. The search for suitable lawyers could become all the more difficult since many judges are also retiring in a short time in other East German states – for example in Saxony-Anhalt.
According to Adams, Thuringia “urgently needs a recruitment reserve from 2024”. His goal is to hire more judges each year than there are vacancies. “If we could always bring in ten more a few years before that would be very, very helpful.” This has not yet been achieved for the new 2023 budget.
According to a list by the Ministry of Justice, 14 judges will retire in the coming year, in 2024 it could be 37 and then 50 in 2027. Most retirements are therefore expected in 2029, when 65 judges could retire . With a share of 30 percent, the figures include the fact that some lawyers could retire prematurely. According to a spokeswoman, this is based on experience.
Adams said the replacements are “doing well” so far. In Thuringia, for example, 37 judges will be on probation in 2022 – according to Adams, a high number.
According to data from the State Statistical Office from the summer of 2021, out of 605 judges in Thuringia, around 240 were between the ages of 55 and 59 and 130 were over 60 years old. In contrast, there were only 25 judges in the 40 to 44 age group and 35 judges in the 35 to 39 age group.
