We list 13 Civil Engineering master's in Germany at eight institutions. All thirteen are master's, all run 24 months, and none carries a tuition figure we have verified. The number that makes this list unusual is a different one: eleven of the thirteen are taught entirely in English.
Eleven of thirteen in English, which is rare
Eleven programmes list English as the language of instruction. The remaining two list German alongside it.
That is a far more open list than German mechanical engineering, where only ten of sixteen are English-only and six expect German to be doing real work. If your German is nonexistent and you are choosing between the two disciplines on practical grounds, civil is the one with almost all of its doors open to you.
It is worth understanding why, because it affects what the degree is for. German civil engineering master's taught in English are frequently built for international infrastructure, water management and structural work — fields where the profession is international and the teaching follows. That is a genuine strength. It also means the professional side of civil engineering in Germany is a different question: site work, public-sector roles and chartered recognition all involve German, whatever the language your degree was taught in. Study in English, work in German, is the honest summary.
The fee section, which is short
German public universities charge no tuition for most master's courses, to Indian students as much as to German ones, which is why there is no fee range on this page.
Germany's two exceptions do not touch this list. Baden-Württemberg charges non-EU students €1,500 a semester and Bavaria leaves it to each institution; every one of the eight institutions here sits in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Hamburg or Hesse, all of which charge nothing. Checked state by state on 16 October 2026.
You still pay the semester contribution — roughly €70 to €430 a semester, which everybody pays and which often carries a transport ticket. And for the visa you must show €992 a month, set 1 January 2025, about €11,904 for the year and normally held in a blocked account. That figure, not the tuition, is what decides whether Germany works for your family.
Where the 13 are
By city: Aachen (3), then Bochum, Hanover and Dresden with two each, and one each in Darmstadt, Braunschweig, Hamburg and Essen.
The institutions are RWTH Aachen University, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Leibniz University Hannover, Technische Universität Dresden, Technical University of Darmstadt, Technische Universität Braunschweig, TUHH Hamburg University of Technology and Universität Duisburg-Essen.
That is a list of technical universities rather than a mixed one — Aachen, Darmstadt, Braunschweig, Dresden and TUHH are among the names German civil engineering is actually built on. For a subject where the institution's engineering reputation carries weight with employers, that concentration matters more than it would in a general subject.
Two years, and what the second one is for
All thirteen run 24 months, against a British engineering master's at twelve. Two years of no tuition and two years of living costs against one year of fees and one of living: for most self-funding students the German total is still lower, and the gap widens the longer you look at it.
In civil engineering the second year is less of a concession than in some subjects. A real thesis, a longer project and time for a working-student role at an engineering office are what turn a degree into a hireable profile, and twelve months rarely leaves room for all three.
Entry requirements
All thirteen record an English requirement, in formats varied enough that no single number covers them. IELTS Academic 6.5 is the most common single anchor, TOEFL iBT alternatives appear throughout with per-section minimums, and several programmes also accept UNIcert® or telc — European certificate systems most Indian applicants have not met and should not assume they hold.
Beyond language, two things decide it. German admissions compare your bachelor's module by module more literally than British ones do, so a civil engineering bachelor's with the structural and geotechnical content named in the programme description is worth more than a higher percentage without it. And Indian applicants need the APS certificate before applying — the step that most often costs people an intake. How the APS works, and which intake to aim at.
Browse the set: Civil Engineering in Germany, master's only, or the subject across every destination we list. The wider picture is in master's in Germany for Indian students, and you can check where you stand in 60 seconds.
Catalogue figures counted from our published listings on 20 October 2026, after an attribution audit retired programme rows that had been assigned to the wrong institution. No verified tuition figure is held for any of these thirteen; state tuition rules, the semester contribution range and the proof-of-funds figure were read on 16 October 2026 from the DAAD and the states' own pages. Rules and figures are revised — confirm on the university's page before you budget.