No, the RWTH is indeed a university. Many (old) THs were granted the status of "Universität" in the 70s and 80s, see https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technische_Universit%C3%A4t

And if you don't trust Wikipedia, the RWTH refers to itself as an "Universität", see here for example: https://www.rwth-aachen.de/cms/root/Die-RWTH/Aktuell/Hochsch... Doing so would be illegal if they weren't one, so I don't see where the claim that they're not comes from.

Yes, it is (and was for a while now) a university but it didn't refer to itself as university until quite recently.

Do you have a source for that claim? This is the first time I'm hearing of a difference in pay for FH and Universität degrees there (regarding bachelor and master, old diploma system doesn't count).

Have a look here with the references to "wissenschaftliche Hochschule" and some differences between between degrees/needs: https://www.bva.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Behoerden/Be...

(Slide 9, for example).

Edit: you are right that the difference might not always apply, but they are not always identical by default as far as I understand it.

I initially wanted to say that this is entirely wrong, but when I went to do a quick check, I found this: https://www.che.de/2023/haelfte-der-bundeslaender-hat-promot... So my knowledge was not entirely up to date.

In short, bachelors and masters are indeed legally identical to the ones acquired at universities, but most do not have the right to promotion. This mostly depends on the state they're in. And they are not allowed to call themselves "Universität" (though some have rebranded to "Hochschule").

All FHs that I know do have an option for getting a Phd through them, but they themselves can't grant them. Instead, an FH can cooperate with an Universität through a sort of loophole. The Phd students spend their time at the FH, but they have two supervisors and get their Phd from the "Universität".

But it seems like it is only a matter of time until difference, too, is no more.