The short answer
The probationary period lasts two years and starts when your first licence is issued — with BF17 that is at 17, so it ends at 19. It does not restrict which vehicles you may drive. One serious offence triggers a mandatory advanced seminar and extends the period to four years.
"Licence on probation" sounds like a reservation, like a limited permission, like a second-class document. It is none of those. Your entitlement is complete — what differs is solely the consequence of an offence.
When it starts and when it ends
It starts on the day the licence is issued and runs two years. With BF17 that means starting at 17 and ending at 19 — the accompanied year sits entirely inside the probationary period, which is precisely the point of it. If you add another class later, no new probationary period begins; it attaches to the first licence, not to the class.
What is different during it
- An absolute alcohol ban: zero at the wheel, for the whole period and for anyone under 21 in any case
- One serious offence triggers an advanced seminar and extends the period to four years
- Two less serious offences have the same effect as one serious one
- Points on the national register accrue separately under the usual system — probation is added to it, it replaces nothing
Almost everybody asks whether engine power is capped during probation, or whether passengers are not allowed. Neither exists in Germany — the idea comes from other countries and is remarkably persistent. We then always say the same sentence: nothing changes about what you may do, only about what happens if something goes wrong.
What the probationary period does not do
It does not cap engine power or the number of passengers, it bans neither the motorway nor driving at night, and it is not extended by an accident without an offence. It also ends by itself: there is no application, no test and no certificate at the end.
A second licence does not replace it
Adding a class during the period — BE or B96 for instance — neither extends nor shortens anything. The two years run on regardless of what you learn alongside.
What exactly counts as a serious offence, and how an advanced seminar runs, is in a post of its own.
What to take away
Probation takes no entitlement away from you, it sharpens the consequence. Once that is filed correctly, you stop reading it as a restriction — and start taking seriously the single offence that turns two years into four.