With Section 127 of Book IV of the Social Code (SGB IV), the legislature has created a transitional provision for teaching activities. It is intended to give educational institutions and the teaching staff concerned time to adapt their contractual and organisational models to the further developed assessment criteria under social security law. Provided the statutory requirements are met, the obligation to be insured on the basis of employment for the teaching activity in question will only come into effect from 1 January 2028.

How long does the transitional arrangement apply?

Under current legislation, the transitional arrangement applies until 31 December 2027.

A prerequisite for the application of the transitional arrangement is that the parties involved mutually assumed, at the time the assignment was made, that the work constituted self-employment, and that the person concerned consents to the application of the transitional arrangement. Without this consent, the transitional arrangement under Section 127 of SGB IV cannot be applied to the assignment in question.

At other universities, I did not have to give my consent for my teaching, assessment or examination assignments; why do I have to do so at the HWR?

Although the legal requirements apply to all universities in Germany and there is an exchange of information across institutions, the specific procedures are organised individually by each university. It is therefore possible that you have not yet received any information on this matter from other universities. It is equally possible that you were contacted by other universities at an earlier stage and that the approval procedure was handled differently there.

The university obtains the necessary approval for the teaching, assessment and examination assignments covered by the procedure. If approval is required for assignments that have already been awarded, the individuals concerned will be informed directly by the university via email.

If you can no longer remember your details, please follow the instructions at: https://it.hwr-berlin.de/faq

Please first check that you have opened the full link from the email. If the link still does not work, please contact it-hotline@hwr-berlin.de. Please do not send any personal data or confidential information that is not required for processing your enquiry.

Please try loading the data again. If the data still does not appear, please contact it-hotline@hwr-berlin.de.

Please check that all fields marked as mandatory have been completed in full. If the problem persists, please contact it-hotline@hwr-berlin.de.

The existing data is used so that you can clearly identify which orders your consent is being sought for and so that you can provide the necessary declaration as easily as possible.

As part of the procedure, the data processed includes, in particular, the information required to identify you and your orders, as well as your declaration regarding the application of the transitional arrangement. Further information on the processing of your personal data can be found in the privacy notice included in the form.

Your details will be processed exclusively by the departments that require them to carry out the procedure. Further information on recipients, retention periods and your data protection rights can be found in the data protection notice within the form.

No. A personalised link is intended solely for the person to whom it was sent. Please do not share it with anyone else.

The background to this is the so-called ‘Herrenberg judgement’ of the Federal Social Court dated 28 June 2022 (Ref. B 12 R 3/20 R). This judgement re-evaluated the distinction between self-employment and employment in the context of teaching activities. The legislature is currently working on further clarifying the legal framework for the awarding of teaching, expert assessment and examination assignments. However, a final statutory provision has not yet been adopted. In order to provide legal certainty and planning security for lecturers and higher education institutions during this phase, a transitional provision was introduced under Section 127 of Book IV of the Social Code (SGB IV). This allows past, current and future teaching, assessment and examination assignments to continue under the existing framework conditions until the end of the transitional period. The application of the transitional provision requires the lecturer’s consent. You can give this consent using the form sent to you. Your consent to the application of Section 127 of Book IV of the Social Code (SGB IV) is therefore also in your own interest: it helps to ensure that no retrospective insurance or contribution obligations arise during the transitional period and that no retroactive changes to your social security classification can take effect. This provides both you and the university with clarity and legal certainty until the legislature has established a definitive regulation. Please note that the university cannot provide individual legal advice.

You agree that the statutory transitional provision under Section 127 of SGB IV shall apply to the relevant assignment. This consent is a legal prerequisite for the transitional provision to apply to the activity in question.

No. By giving your consent, you are not definitively declaring that your activity is to be classified as self-employment under social security law. Your consent relates to the application of the transitional provision under Section 127 of SGB IV. This provision applies even in cases where an activity would otherwise be classified as employed work under social security law.

No. The consent itself does not constitute a determination of status. Whether an activity is to be classified as self-employment or employment for the purposes of social security law depends on the actual circumstances of the activity in question. In cases of doubt, a binding clarification may be obtained, in particular through a status determination procedure.

The consent serves primarily to fulfil the legal requirements for the application of the transitional arrangement. It does not automatically alter the amount of a fee that has already been agreed or paid.

No. HWR Berlin can provide you with information about the procedure it carries out and the background to the approval. However, HWR Berlin cannot offer individual advice on social security, tax or employment law. For individual enquiries, please contact the relevant social security institution or a suitably qualified advisory service.

For new contracts, the required approval will in future be integrated directly into the contracting process. You will therefore not need to be contacted retrospectively via a separate procedure.

You will be informed about the required consent by the relevant organisational unit as early as the discussion stage regarding a potential new contract. The formal declaration will then take place as part of the subsequent commissioning process via the HWR Berlin Campus Management System.

For future assignments, consent will be obtained via the HWR Berlin Campus Management System. You can also view the details of your respective assignment there. Step-by-step instructions can be found at: https://sam-knowledge.hwr-berlin.de/dozierende-info.

Consent must be obtained on a contract-by-contract basis as part of the relevant appointment process. This ensures that it is documented for which specific contract the transitional arrangement is to apply.

HWR Berlin stipulates that, for contracts covered by the transitional arrangement, the required consent must be in place before the appointment is finalised. We ask for your understanding that HWR Berlin will not award the teaching post if consent is not provided.

No. Consent is given via a personalised HWR account in HWR Berlin’s Campus Management System.

You will receive a personalised link to the form management system via email. This link will take you directly to your form. The information held by the university regarding the relevant contracts is already pre-filled. Please do not share this link with anyone else!

If you have taken on contracts in several organisational units at HWR Berlin, you may receive a separate email with its own personalised link for each department, the BPS, Studium Generale and the Language Centre. The reason for this is that the contracts are processed by different departments within the respective organisational units. Consent is therefore sought for each organisational unit. In this case, please complete all the forms sent to you. Each form displays the assignments for the relevant organisational unit.

Below you will find step-by-step instructions on how to use the form.

• Click on the personalised link in the email.
• The form will open, listing all your assignments relating to a specific department, the BPS, the Studium Generale or the Language Centre.
• Confirm all assignments by clicking on ‘Select all’.
• Then tick the box at the very bottom of the form. This is a mandatory field; you cannot submit the form without ticking this box.
• Now click on ‘Submit’. The data will then be sent to us.
• Once submitted, a PDF file will be generated. Print out the PDF file, sign it and send the signed document to the address specified on the PDF.

As this method does not involve logging in via a personal HWR account, a signed declaration is required in addition to the electronic submission.

You should therefore print out the PDF file generated after submission, sign it and submit it to the relevant organisational unit specified therein.

When is the process complete for me?

If you do not have a university account, the process is only complete once the electronically completed form has been submitted and the signed declaration has been received by the relevant organisational unit.

Below you will find step-by-step instructions on how to use the form.

• Click on the link in the email.
• You will now be asked for your HWR account login details. Enter your details accordingly. If you no longer remember your details, please follow the instructions at https://it.hwr-berlin.de/faq
• Once you have logged in successfully, the form will open. First, click on ‘Load data’. All your orders will then be loaded into the form.
• You can now confirm all orders at once by clicking on ‘Select all’. Alternatively, you can tick the box next to each order individually.
• Next, tick the box at the very bottom of the form. This is a mandatory field; you cannot submit the form without ticking this box.
• Now click on ‘Submit’. The data will then be sent to us.
• You can now download and save a PDF file containing your details.

This function securely transfers the order data stored in your HWR account into the form.

No. If you have logged in with your HWR account and submitted the form electronically, no additional signature is required.

Consent is not only required for current and future teaching, assessment and examination assignments, but must also be given for past assignments within a specified timeframe. Only then can it be ensured that no retrospective changes occur for past assignments and that the transitional provision under Section 127 of SGB IV applies. The HWR is therefore requesting and documenting consent for all teaching, assessment and examination assignments carried out since the winter semester 2023/24.

HWR Berlin is seeking approval for assignments from the winter semester 2023/24 onwards. The assignments already awarded that are relevant to you will be displayed in the form management system.

No. You will receive a personalised overview from the university via the form management system. The assignments that have been awarded are already listed there. Please check that the details displayed are correct and complete.

Please do not submit the form with incorrect details; instead, contact it-hotline@hwr-berlin.de. The university will check the details and arrange for a correction if necessary.

In principle, your consent will also be obtained and documented by the HWR for new future teaching, assessment and examination assignments during the transition period in accordance with Section 127 of SGB IV. The consent process for these assignments is structured differently; you will receive the relevant information when a new teaching, assessment or examination assignment is issued.

As some teaching, assessment and examination assignments date back some time and we wish to ensure that the lecturer or assessor can be contacted, we are using the email addresses known to us. If you have received the same email at different email addresses, you may ignore the duplicate emails. The information contained therein and the link to the form are identical.

No. If your consent is required for assignments that have already been awarded, you will be contacted directly by HWR Berlin. You therefore do not need to submit a declaration of consent yourself as a precaution.

Please give your consent by the deadline stated in your email.

Yes, the form remains active for the time being, even after the deadline set in the email. You can therefore still complete and submit the form; the data will be forwarded to us accordingly. After submitting the form, you will receive a confirmation and will be able to download and save a PDF containing the details you have provided.

In principle, you are not obliged to give your consent. As long as you do not give your consent, the transitional provision under Section 127 of SGB IV does not apply; in other words, legal uncertainty remains for both you and the HWR. Should an obligation to pay social security contributions be established retrospectively, you also run the risk of facing additional claims or demands for repayment.

As you will no doubt understand, the HWR has an interest in minimising legal risks and avoiding potential additional or retroactive claims. We therefore reserve the right to decide on a case-by-case basis regarding the awarding of new future teaching, assessment and examination assignments should consent for existing assignments not be granted.