ENPrivate hospitals in Germany are owned by a company rather than a city, a state or a church, and follow the same medical standards as the rest. From abroad they look like a better kind of medicine, and public hospitals like a simpler one. They are not: the difference is legal, not medical — who owns the hospital.
Below: what private means here, who owns the big groups, how a small private clinic differs from a university hospital, and what changes for an international patient. No rankings.
Are there private hospitals in Germany?
Yes: private hospitals are one of three ownership groups (Trägerschaft), alongside municipal and state-owned hospitals and church-run and non-profit ones (freigemeinnützig). Hospitals of all three groups in a state hospital plan follow the same medical standards and treat statutory insurance patients; the site lists hospitals in Germany of all three kinds.
The confusion comes from the word Privatklinik, which means two things: a hospital owned by a private company, which can be huge and treat anyone, statutory patients included; or a small clinic for privately insured patients and self-payers, outside the DRG system, whose doctors bill under the doctors’ fee scale and whose treatment is elective.
Private clinics in Germany are therefore not simply «the ones you pay for»: the large private groups are funded from the same statutory insurance system as the city hospitals. How public hospitals in Germany work is explained separately.
Who owns the private hospital groups
Owners range from a healthcare corporation to health insurers and a family. Many private hospitals in Germany belong to such groups; one of the largest, the Helios hospital group, part of Fresenius, has more than 80 hospitals, around 200 medical care centres (MVZ), six prevention centres and over 80,000 employees in Germany, and in 2025 it treated about 5.6 million patients, more than 4 million as outpatients. Seven of its hospitals, in Berlin, Duisburg, Erfurt, Krefeld, Schwerin, Wuppertal and Wiesbaden, cover almost every field of medicine.
Asklepios Kliniken Hamburg grew out of the city’s hospitals: Asklepios took over the municipal operator LBK in 2005 with 49.9 per cent and has held 74.9 per cent since 2007, the city keeping 25.1 per cent. Sana Kliniken AG, founded in 1976 and headquartered in Ismaning near Munich, belongs to 24 private health insurers; its 2025 turnover was 4.1 billion euros.
Schön Klinik, a family company founded in 1985, has 13,600 staff in 15 hospitals and 46 outpatient and day-clinic sites in five German states, treating about 364,000 patients a year, plus clinics in the UK. Median runs around 120 rehabilitation clinics, hospitals, therapy centres and outpatient units from its Berlin head office. Every group has large and small hospitals, so its name says little about any one department.
Small private clinics: the difference in practice
The difference is scale and the way patients are looked after, not the level of medicine. Take Klinik Josephinum on Schönfeldstraße in central Munich: not a university complex with thousands of beds but a 70-bed hospital, open since 1893, treating about 4,400 patients a year in seven departments. One specialist plans and carries out each patient’s whole treatment. Legally it is a non-profit company (gemeinnützige AG), open to patients of all health insurance funds: a small format and a private owner are different things.
The other example, ISAR Klinikum on Sonnenstraße in central Munich, is a private multi-specialty hospital opened in 2008 in a former 19th-century maternity hospital; it treats both statutory and privately insured patients. In short, a small format usually means closer contact with the doctor and a calmer setting, not stronger medicine, and complex or rare cases still belong to the university hospitals in Germany.
Are the best clinics in Germany the private ones?
No list can answer that: the best clinics in Germany are best at something specific, and a hospital with a large heart-valve programme is not automatically strong in spinal surgery. Check whether the department performs your intervention regularly and is certified for that field, and who heads it. Rankings and lists of the best private hospitals in Germany rest largely on doctor surveys and reputation, not results; the page on hospital ranking in Germany explains how to read them.
The patient’s own status matters more than the hospital’s. Anyone from outside the German insurance system is a self-payer (Selbstzahler) and pays personally, public hospital or private, so «private or public» decides neither the price nor access: admission depends on the diagnosis and records.
What genuinely differs is the billing. Under the DRG system, inpatient care is paid in case groups whose amount depends mainly on diagnosis, operation and severity of illness; a small private clinic outside that system more often bills doctors’ work under the GOÄ doctors’ fee scale. A comfort room and treatment by the head of department are optional services (Wahlleistung), agreed in writing and billed on top. Searching by city? See private hospitals in Berlin.
Frequently asked questions
How do private and public hospitals in Germany differ?
Mainly in who owns them: a company, or a city, district or state. Medical standards are the same, and any hospital in a state hospital plan treats statutory patients whoever owns it. For foreigners, the department’s experience and the billing method matter more than the owner.
Are private hospitals in Germany more expensive?
Not necessarily: the price depends on the treatment and billing method, not the owner. A DRG hospital must charge general services to all patients alike, private or municipal. A comfort room and the head of department’s treatment cost extra; the clinic’s estimate gives the exact amount.
Can foreigners be treated in a private hospital in Germany?
Yes. Without German insurance a patient is a self-payer, in private and public hospitals alike. The department reviews the records and scans, then sends an estimate; if insurance cover is not proven, the hospital may ask for advance payment. AlenMed helps with the visa, interpreter and arrival.
How AlenMed arranges treatment in Germany
AlenMed matches the hospital to the diagnosis, not its ownership: our 86 partner clinics in 38 German cities are public, church-run and private. We obtain the estimate on the clinic’s letterhead, explain what the bill covers and what is extra, prepare visa papers, meet the patient and provide an interpreter at appointments and on the ward. Our office is in Munich.
This material is for information only and is not an offer. The choice of clinic and the extent of treatment are decided by a doctor after an in-person examination.