Your licence
at seventeen.

No. Before your 18th birthday your test certificate is valid in Germany only.

That is down to the document: BF17 is a German arrangement, and other countries do not recognise the test certificate as a licence. Your supervisor changes nothing about that, and it applies to the neighbouring countries just the same.

At 18 you collect the card licence from the Straßenverkehrsamt, and from that day you may drive with it anywhere a German licence is valid.

Then the licence is gone: a fine, a point in Flensburg, revocation of the licence and the probationary period extended to four years.

The revocation weighs heaviest, because afterwards you do not pick up where you left off. It applies to the short trip round the block as well — and it applies even when somebody suitable but not registered is sitting beside you.

So register one supervisor too many rather than one too few. Anyone aged 30 or over qualifies who has held class B for at least five years and has no more than one point in Flensburg.

Two years, exactly as with class B. It starts on the day you pass the practical test — so at 17.

That is the quiet advantage of the early start: passing at 17 often means the probationary period is half behind you while people your own age are only driving to their test.

It changes nothing about what you may drive. It changes only what a serious offence brings with it: an advanced seminar and the extension to four years.

Yes. Theory classes are on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings and on Saturday mornings, and we plan the driving lessons around your timetable.

There are no fixed courses — you take the classes that fit your week, and you can drop out for a fortnight during exams. The 14 topics run in a circle, so nothing is missed for good.

Bring your parents to the first meeting: a guardian's consent is part of signing up, and we register your supervisors at the same time.

From 16 years and 6 months — six months before your 17th birthday.

Theory classes and driving lessons may start straight away. Only the tests are tied to your age: the theory test at the earliest three months, and the practical test at the earliest one month before your 17th birthday.

Anyone who really wants to drive on their birthday should sign up early. Between signing up and the theory test lie the 14 topics, and you want to have heard those before the test window opens.

You collect the card licence from the Straßenverkehrsamt and may drive on your own from that day.

There is no further test, no new eyesight test and no additional fee from us. The accompanying condition simply falls away — the entitlement itself has been yours since you passed.

From that day your licence is valid abroad as well. The probationary period, by contrast, runs on unchanged: it began at 17 and ends two years after your practical test.

Yes. BF17 is not a type of car but an earlier start — it combines with a manual, with automatic-only under B78 and with the B197 rule.

Age and gearbox are two separate decisions. BF17 governs from when and under what conditions you drive; the gearbox governs what you may drive once you have passed.

Both entries later sit side by side on the licence. At 18 the accompanying condition falls away, while a key number 78 or 197 stays on it for good.