As a professor at a university of applied science in Germany, is 600 hours of teaching considered a lot? What does it look like? The job description says:
Die Arbeitszeit beträgt grundsätzlich 40 Stunden pro Woche. Der Mitarbeiter hält in der Vorlesungszeit Lehrveranstaltungen im Umfang von bis zu 600 Lehrveranstaltungsstunden pro Jahr ab.
Working hours are generally 40 hours per week. During the lecture period, the employee holds courses amounting to up to 600 hours per year.
The typical unit of teaching in Germany is SWS (Semesterwochenstunden – hours per week per semester). One SWS corresponds to 45 minutes (German teaching hour) of lectures or similar over 14 or 15 weeks. Other teaching duties such as supervising theses, excursions, practicals etc. have official conversion rates to SWS. Also, professors can partially reduce their teaching loads by taking on certain teaching-related administrative roles such as being on the examination committee or supervising others who teach. However, preparation times, exam correction, etc. do not count as extra SWS.
A professorship at a university of applied science (Fachhochschulprofessur) is considerably different from a professorship at a “normal” university on account of its teaching focus. The typical teaching load of a professor at a university of applied science is 18 SWS, which corresponds to roughly 540 hours (of 45 minutes) face time per year. Thus, 600 hours seems somewhat high, but not overly high. The only people with such teaching loads have a position called Lehrkraft für besondere Aufgaben (teacher for special tasks), which has a teaching load of up to 24 SWS at universities of applied sciences (depending on the state); these are not professorships.
If you are unsure what a given position entails, I recommend to ask/look for SWS as this is the standard unit. If nothing further is specified, look at the respective state’s laws regarding the specific position. These teaching loads are pretty standardised.
Professors at universities of applied science typically spend their first few years entirely on building up teaching, i.e., creating material, developing routine, etc. This is generally considered a very taxing phase and many work more than 40 hours per week to manage this, often considerably more. However, this depends a lot on the specific position, accommodation by the university, and what material you already have. For example, if you can primarily use existing teaching material and have some repetition in your teaching duties (e.g., doing the same course twice), this can considerably ease the situation. If you are considering taking such a position, I strongly recommend to inquire what kind of support, existing material, etc. you can build upon during the first years.
Once they have done every course once or twice, professors typically can allot some of their time to other projects such as research, industry collaborations, committee work etc. What exactly is possible here depends a lot on the position. Still, teaching remains a primary aspect of such a professorship.
This second half of the answer stems from my own investigation in such positions including long conversations with people who have recently acquired such a position.
Here (in German), it says that 15 Lehrveranstaltungsstunden are roughly equivalent to 1 Semsterwochenstunde (SWS) (perhaps are more widely known term). Divide 600 by 15, that makes 40 SWS a year, or 20 per semester.
This table gives the normal amounts of SWS for professors in different federal states in Germany (both for university and university of applied sciences): 8-10 per semester for university professors and 16-18 for those at applied sciences.
So if those hours don't include preaparation (and according to the definition in source 1 they don't), the answer is: Yes, that is a lot of hours.
