Studienrat (Germany)  Studienrat (abbreviation StR), literally meaning "Educational Councillor", is an official German title for an official or civil servant mostly in the regular state-owned grammar schools in Germany. It is a denomination for an official in the so-called "higher service" as opposed to the "elevated", "middle" and "lower" service ranks. This office is located on the 4th "service level" and remunerated according to "A 13" which marks the first salary level of "higher service" officials. The Studienrat normally works as a teacher in higher education up to the Abitur which corresponds to A-Level exams. In the GDR Studienrat was an honorary title for a teacher. Besides, there are also civil servants at ecclesiastical church-owned grammar schools that hold the title of a „Studienrat im Kirchendienst“ ("Educational Councillor in Church Service"), short „StR i. K.“ They are "officials of the church", on a legal basis comparable to officials of the state. The following ranks are Oberstudienrat ("Upper Educational Councillor"), Studiendirektor ("Educational Director") and Oberstudiendirektor ("Upper Educational Direktor")  Nomination of a Studienrat requires a master's degree in at least two subjects like Mathematics and Physics and additional educational studies. The next step is a teacher training at an Educational College for mostly two years including practical training on the job, and a three-year probationary period at a grammar school. In 1918, Wilhelm II made a decree to replace the title "Oberlehrer" (upper teacher) by the honorary title "Studienrat". In Prussia, since 1892 two thirds of the grammar school teachers held the title of Oberlehrer, a third was addressed by the honorary title of grammar school professor: "Gymnasialprofessor". Oberlehrer were entitled to teach in higher education. As early as 1892 they were seen as equal to judges or magistrates, acknowledged as "higher service officials of the fifth class". This higher ranking and the coveted title of a councillor ("Rat") boosted the previously rather low social prestige of the grammar school teachers, a success mainly owed to the unremitting efforts of the "Vereinsverband akademisch gebildeter Lehrer" ("Association of unions of academically educated teachers"), founded in 1903, which from 1921 onwards called itself "Philologenverband" ("Association of philologians").