- Part-time courses cost a median 70% more per teaching hour than intensive ones — €9.11 vs €5.37.
- The gap survives when you look at private schools only (€10.36 vs €6.65) — it isn't just an artifact of cheaper public (VHS) courses.
- There's no "intensive discount": an intensive course spreads roughly fixed costs over a median 15 hours a week; a part-time course spreads the same kind of costs over a median 3.6 — the same base, split into more or fewer pieces.
- Intensive is cheaper per hour and harder to fit around a job. That's a trade-off, not a better or worse choice.
The finding
That's the opposite of what the total price suggests at a glance: an intensive course usually costs more for the week overall, simply because it covers more hours. If you only look at the weekly price or the course price, you never see this — it only shows up once you divide by the hours actually taught.
Methodology
Only proven prices count — every figure here has a verbatim quote from the school's own website that our system automatically re-verifies (the same rule behind the price report). 1:1 private tutoring is excluded, since it's priced on a structurally different basis.
Intensive courses: 113 verified prices at 32 Berlin schools, median €5.37, middle 50% between €4.58 and €8.02. Part-time courses: 119 verified prices at 31 schools, median €9.11, middle 50% between €3.75 and €11.16. 28 of the 32 schools offer both formats — this is overwhelmingly the same provider pricing itself two ways, not different schools with different general pricing.
Checked before publishing: restrict the comparison to private schools only (no VHS) and the gap survives — and widens — to €6.65 vs €10.36 per hour. Restrict it to VHS courses only and the difference nearly disappears (€2.95 vs €3.04), which makes sense, since VHS courses bill at a largely fixed, subsidised rate regardless of format. So this is a real, independent effect, not a side-effect of which schools happen to offer which format.
Why this happens
No school is granting an "intensive discount." The pattern simply follows from how largely fixed costs — room rent, administration, part of a teacher's salary — get spread across the hours actually taught. In our own data, an intensive course runs a median 15 teaching hours a week; a part-time course runs a median 3.6. The same fixed-cost base, divided by nearly four times as many hours, produces a lower price per hour automatically — no school has to plan it that way for the effect to show up.
From a student's side, this effect almost disappears behind the booking itself: if you pay by the week or by the course, you see one number on the invoice, not the hourly rate behind it. The intensive course looks more expensive because the weekly bill is higher — that it's actually cheaper per hour of German you learn only shows up if you do the division yourself.
The trade-off, stated plainly
None of this is an argument that everyone should book an intensive course. An intensive course runs mornings, usually Monday to Thursday or Friday, 15–25 hours a week — that's hard to fit around a full-time job. A part-time course costs more per hour precisely because it does the opposite: a few evening hours a week you can plan around a job or studies. You're paying for the flexibility, not for a worse course.
The honest version: if you have the time and want to move fast, intensive is cheaper per hour AND faster. If you're working, part-time is the only realistic option — the higher hourly rate is the cost of that realism, not a worse deal from the school.
Check it yourself
Every level shows its own current course count, school count and price range, live: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. Full methodology and every figure in detail: Berlin German course price report.