What else does the German theory test cover beyond signs and priority?

Überholen is going round something moving in your direction. Vorbeifahren is going round something standing still. The exam separates them because the rules differ.

Every one of these has to be true before you pull out: you can see the whole manoeuvre through to the end with room to spare; you are clearly faster, because a crawling overtake is itself prohibited; nobody behind has already started overtaking you; the driver you pass will not have to brake when you pull back in; and there is no solid line, no Überholverbot and no unclear situation.

It is banned outright at and near a Fußgängerüberweg — the car you are passing may be stopping for someone you cannot see — beyond the Andreaskreuz at a level crossing, and anywhere the view is unclear: bends, crests, dips, fog. You must give a cyclist 1.5 m in town and 2 m outside it; if the road is too narrow for that, you may not pass at all.

Passing on the right is normally forbidden. It is allowed in queues on multi-lane roads inside built-up areas, and on the Autobahn only when traffic is genuinely slow and then only with a small speed difference. You may also pass on the right a driver who has clearly pulled over and indicated to turn left.

Mirror → indicator → position → mirror → shoulder check → move. Every single time.

Turning right: get close to the right kerb early so nobody can slip up your inside, turn slowly, and let cyclists and pedestrians going straight go first. Turning left: position near the centre line, wait with the wheels straight so a rear-end shunt does not push you into oncoming traffic, and give way to everything coming towards you and to pedestrians crossing the road you are entering.

The shoulder check is not optional. Mirrors leave a gap about one car-width wide beside you — exactly where a cyclist rides. Beside a lorry that gap is enormous: if you cannot see the driver’s face in their mirror, they cannot see you.

Outside built-up areas you drive as far right as practical. Free lane choice exists only inside towns on multi-lane roads. A blue direction arrow is binding — once you are in that lane, that is where you go. Where two lanes become one, zip-merge at the merge point, one for one.

Dipped headlights (Abblendlicht) belong on in the dark, at dusk, and in fog, snow or rain. They switch your rear lights on too. Daytime running lights usually do not, which is exactly how cars disappear in spray.

Front fog lights are for badly reduced visibility — a wide low beam that lights the kerb instead of the fog. The rear fog light is legal only under 50 m visibility, and once it is legal your ceiling is 50 km/h. In ordinary rain it dazzles the driver behind and hides your brake lights.

Main beam is for unlit roads with nobody to dazzle: dip for oncoming traffic and for the car you are following, and never use it in fog, where it reflects straight back at you. Hazard lights mean you have become a hazard — broken down, towing or being towed, or approaching the back of a jam.

Reflector posts on country roads stand 50 m apart. If you can see only the next post, visibility is 50 m: the rear fog light becomes legal and 50 km/h becomes your limit. Your following distance should never exceed the distance you can actually see.

Use the whole acceleration lane to reach the speed of the traffic: joining traffic has no priority (§18 Abs. 3 StVO). Leave via the deceleration lane and do your braking inside it, not on the carriageway. Blue countdown boards mark 300, 200 and 100 m to the exit — not to be confused with the red rail boards at 240, 160 and 80 m.

Completely forbidden: reversing, turning round, driving against the flow, and stopping at all — including on the hard shoulder except in a genuine emergency. Running out of fuel counts as an avoidable breakdown and is an offence. Pedestrians, cyclists and anything unable to exceed 60 km/h by design may not be there at all.

The Rettungsgasse is formed as soon as traffic slows, not once it stops: between the far-left lane and all the others. On two lanes, the left car goes left and the right car goes right (§11 Abs. 2 StVO).

If you break down: hazard lights, get off the carriageway, high-visibility vest on before you open the door, everyone out on the passenger side and behind the crash barrier, then the warning triangle, walking behind the barrier, then call for help.

Near children, elderly people and people with disabilities the legal standard is higher than “careful”. §3 Abs. 2a StVO requires you to reduce speed and be ready to brake, to the point where a mistake by them cannot cause an accident.

Children misjudge speed, act on impulse, and are short enough to be hidden by a parked car until they step out. A ball means a child is next. Cyclists wobble when setting off and swerve round opening doors and drains: 1.5 m clearance in town, 2 m outside.

At a Fußgängerüberweg anyone clearly wanting to cross must be let through, wheelchair users included; you stop, they do not wait for a gap. A bus with hazard lights at a stop means walking pace and no overtaking, and on an undivided road that binds oncoming traffic too. Where tram passengers step straight into the road, walking pace and ready to stop.

E-scooters: minimum age 14, top speed 20 km/h, cycle paths not footpaths, and the same alcohol limits as a car.

Aquaplaning: the steering suddenly goes light and the engine note rises. Ease off, hold the wheel straight, do not brake hard and do not steer sharply. Grip returns abruptly, and if the wheels are turned when it does, the car snaps sideways.

Corners: brake before, steady throttle through, accelerate out. Cornering force grows with the square of speed, which is why the bend signs exist at all — people arrive too fast, not too slow.

Long descents: choose a low gear before you start down. Sitting on the brake overheats the discs until the pedal goes soft (brake fade). Neutral is worse: no engine braking at all. Black ice forms first on bridges, in shade, at forest exits and in dips — around 0 °C expect it even where the road looks dry.

ABS stops the wheels locking so you can still steer while braking hard; it does not always shorten the braking distance, and on gravel or loose snow it can lengthen it. ESP brakes individual wheels to correct a skid but cannot create grip that is not there.

Heavy things go low and hard against the back of the seats, with nothing loose on the rear shelf. In a 50 km/h crash an unsecured object strikes with tens of times its own weight — a 10 kg toolbox arrives like a quarter of a tonne. Roof loads raise the centre of gravity and cost noticeable fuel.

A load projecting more than 1 m beyond the rear light needs a red flag, cloth or cylinder no higher than 1.5 m above the road, and at night a red light and reflector (§22 StVO).

Trailers: check coupling, safety cable, lights and noseweight before every trip. Your limit outside built-up areas drops to 80 km/h, and to 80 on the Autobahn as well unless the trailer carries a Tempo-100 plate. If it starts to snake, do not accelerate and do not counter-steer: come off the throttle and brake gently in a straight line. Reversing, the trailer turns the opposite way to your steering.

People: a child restraint is required under 12 years or 150 cm — whichever they pass first releases the requirement. A rear-facing seat goes on the front passenger seat only with the airbag switched off. The head restraint sits level with the top of your ears; that, not the belt, is what prevents whiplash.

Medicine:antihistamines, painkillers, sedatives, cough syrup and some eye drops all affect fitness to drive. Read the leaflet and ask a pharmacist. “It was prescribed” is not a defence — §316 StGB asks whether you were fit to drive, not why you were not.

Tiredness: microsleep lasts a few seconds. At 100 km/h that is 28 m every second, driven completely blind. The warning signs are heavy eyelids, drifting in the lane, missing signs, and not remembering the last few kilometres.

The only fix is stopping and sleeping — 15 to 20 minutes works. Coffee buys perhaps half an hour and then lets you down harder. Fresh air, loud music and opening the window are wrong answers in every question they appear in.

The order the exam wants, and the order that keeps you alive:

1. 1Hazard lights on, stop somewhere safe, high-visibility vest on before you open the door.
2. 2Warning triangle at a sufficient distance — placed before a bend or crest, not after it.
3. 3Call 112: where you are, what happened, how many people are hurt, and stay on the line.
4. 4First aid. Unconscious but breathing → recovery position. Not breathing normally → chest compressions.
5. 5Only move somebody out of a vehicle if there is immediate danger, such as fire.

Leaving the scene without exchanging details is a criminal offence under §142 StGB, including for a scraped mirror on a parked car. A note on the windscreen is not enough: wait a reasonable time, then report it to the police.

Blue light and siren obliges everyone to clear the way immediately (§38 Abs. 1 StVO). Blue light alone means the vehicle is only travelling and puts no duty on you. Broken down on a level crossing: people out first, then try to move the car, then the number on the signal box or 112.

Tyres: the legal minimum tread is 1.6 mm; 3 mm summer and 4 mm winter are the recommended figures, because wet grip collapses long before the legal limit. Check pressure cold, and include the spare.

Winter tyres are required whenever conditions are wintry — ice, snow, slush, frost. There is no calendar date in the law (§2 Abs. 3a StVO). Running summer tyres in snow brings a fine and a point, and your insurer can cut its payout.

Before a long trip: tyres, oil, coolant, washer fluid, lights, brakes, mirrors, head restraints, load secured. Then set the seat so your wrist rests on top of the wheel with a slightly bent arm.

On you: driving licence and registration Part I (Zulassungsbescheinigung Teil I). Part II is the ownership document and stays at home. In the car: warning triangle, in-date first-aid kit and at least one high-visibility vest. A fire extinguisher is recommended, not required. The Hauptuntersuchung is every two years; a new car first after three.

Uses less fuel: shifting up early, around 2,000 rpm; looking far ahead and coasting, because on the overrun a modern engine injects no fuel at all; correct tyre pressure; taking the roof box off when you are not using it; switching off rather than idling.

Wastes it: warming the engine while parked, which is both wasteful and prohibited; short cold trips, where consumption roughly doubles; air conditioning running constantly; accelerating hard into the next red light.

A Umweltzoneneeds the green sticker on the windscreen. Without it you may not enter, visitor or not, and the sticker is tied to the vehicle’s emissions class rather than to you.

Unnecessary noise and avoidable exhaust fumes are offences in their own right (§30 StVO): revving while stationary, slamming doors at night in a residential street, and using the horn for anything other than a warning.

If you learned to drive under different conventions, these specific reflexes cost points in the test and cause real trouble on the road here.

• Priority is fixed, not negotiated. Rechts vor links is a rule, not an opening bid. Nudging forward to claim a gap is precisely the behaviour the exam exists to remove.
• Turning right on red is not allowed unless the green arrow (Grünpfeil) is fitted — and then only after a complete stop.
• The horn is a warning device, not a way of talking. Using it outside danger is an offence.
• A Fußgängerüberweg is absolute. Anyone who clearly wants to cross gets to cross. You stop; they do not wait for a gap.
• Overtaking happens on the left only in normal traffic. Undertaking on the Autobahn is a serious offence, not a manoeuvre.
• Cyclists have their own lanes and their own priority. One going straight beats your right turn, every time.
• Flashing your headlights is not “after you”. Legally it is a warning of danger, and it cannot hand priority to anyone.
• Distances are enforced by camera. Tailgating on the Autobahn brings points and a ban, not just a fine.