Section 1
The one document you cannot skip: the Gefährdungsbeurteilung
The risk assessment (Gefährdungsbeurteilung, Paragraph 5 ArbSchG) is the foundation of the whole system, and it applies regardless of company size. One employee is enough to trigger it. It is not optional, and it is the first thing an inspector or the Berufsgenossenschaft asks to see. What it is: a written assessment of the hazards in your workplace and the measures you take against them. For an office it is short. For a workshop, a kitchen or a building site it is longer and more specific. The point is that it exists, it is written down, it reflects your actual workplace, and you update it when things change. A note on documentation size: historically the smallest firms (ten or fewer employees) could be released from parts of the written-documentation duty by the authority, but the assessment itself still has to be done. Do not read "small firm" as "no risk assessment." Read it as "keep the documentation proportionate."
Section 2
The rest of the required core
Beyond the risk assessment, a small employer genuinely owes a short list. None of it needs an HR department. • Instruction of employees (Unterweisung). You have to instruct staff on the hazards and safe practices relevant to their work, at hiring and then regularly (typically annually, more often for higher-risk work). Write down that you did it and when. • First aid and fire basics (Erste Hilfe, Brandschutz). Trained first-aiders appropriate to your size, stocked first-aid materials, and basic fire-safety provisions. Your Berufsgenossenschaft specifies the ratios. • Occupational-health and safety support (DGUV Vorschrift 2). Firms are required to arrange support from a company doctor (Betriebsarzt) and a safety specialist (Fachkraft für Arbeitssicherheit). For small firms there is a lighter path, the Unternehmermodell (Regelbetreuung für Kleinbetriebe): the owner attends training and takes on this coordination themselves, calling in the doctor and specialist as needed rather than retaining them full-time. This is the provision that saves small owners the most money, and many do not know it exists. • Employer accident insurance (Berufsgenossenschaft). Membership is mandatory. You register the business, and they are also your first port of call for what your specific trade requires. That is the working core. Risk assessment, instruction, first aid and fire, DGUV support via the small-firm model, and BG membership.
Section 3
Where the floor ends
The upsell begins past that line. A retained external safety consultant on a fat monthly fee, a full safety-management system, elaborate audits and certifications: these are products, not obligations, for an ordinary small firm. Some higher-risk trades genuinely need more, which is exactly why you confirm your specifics with your Berufsgenossenschaft, the body that actually sets your requirements, rather than with a vendor whose income depends on your answer being "more." The Unternehmermodell is the clearest example of the gap. An owner who does not know it exists can be sold a permanent external-support contract for something the law lets them handle themselves after a training course. Knowing the floor is what stops that.
Section 4
The fitness test
Your Arbeitsschutz is at the required minimum if: • You have a written Gefährdungsbeurteilung that matches your actual workplace and gets updated when things change. • You can show dated records of employee instruction, and you have first-aid and fire basics in place to your BG's spec. • Your health-and-safety support runs through the small-firm Unternehmermodell or an equivalent, and you are registered with your Berufsgenossenschaft. If the risk assessment is missing, start there today, because it is both the legal foundation and the first thing anyone inspecting you will ask for. If you are paying for a full external safety apparatus you may not need, call your Berufsgenossenschaft and ask what your trade actually requires before you renew.