Hi njs,

well, as I said, I know some excellent physios in Germany who are on par with their international collegues but in generally, I donīt find the German physio education very good. The good physios usually have extensive post grad course studies...

Also, what I have written, is the formal/legal part. In reality, of course, you assess a patient and develop your own treatment plan. The doctorīs "diagnosis" often is something specific like "lumbar syndrome" or "Impingement" - doesnīt tell you anything, right? And the treatment on the referral says "manual therapy" or something like that. You would still choose the treatment method thatīs the most suitable. The reason why they have to specify the diagnosis and treatment is partly because of billing purposes for the health insurances - different diagnoses get a certain number of physio treatments or certain treatments cost more than others. If you have good connections with specialists etc, itīs not uncommon for the physio to let the referring doctor know what kind of referral he needs to give the patient Thatīs private practice though.
In hospital, the system is different, even though I am not familiar with the current situation (havenīt worked in a hospital in Germany since I graduated) - but there are good and bad places, I suppose. In some hospital, the medical teams and physios would work closely together - in some, thereīs more hierachy.
Whatever you decide - if you want to just get an idea and observe the work of physios, Iīm sure people would be willing to show you around.
As for working in the country - you will need to speak the language. So I still think, the idea with the British military bases might be worth a thought.
Unless you want to pull beers in an irish pub