Germany · DSV

DJM Pflichtzeiten: how qualification works

German swimming families use two words for the same thing. Pflichtzeiten (obligatory times) and Qualifikationszeiten (qualifying times) both mean the time a swimmer must have swum to be entered for a championship — and in the DSV's own documents the second word does most of the work.

2026 seasonUpdated July 2026416 times transcribed

The age system

Jahrgang: your swimmer's year is their class

The DSV runs on Jahrgang — year of birth, pure and simple. A swimmer belongs to their birth-year class for the entire calendar year, with no birthday effect at all. Everyone born in 2012 moves up on 1 January together.

The DJM 2026 (Deutsche Jahrgangsmeisterschaften, the national age-group championships, Berlin, 9–13 June 2026) admitted Jahrgänge 2008 to 2012. For the 2027 cycle the age classes map as AK18 = Jg. 2009, AK17 = 2010, AK16 = 2011, AK15 = 2012 and AK14 = 2013.

The DSV went back to fixed qualifying times for the DJM

This is the change that matters, and it's recent. For DJM 2026 the DSV returned to a fixed table of Qualifikationszeiten after a period of qualifying by ranking-list position. A published number is a very different thing to live with than a moving rank: it can be pinned above a kitchen table in October and chased all winter.

For the 2027 cycle, the currently applicable forward-looking set is the Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten, published in July 2026. The full DJM 2027 Ausschreibung, with the official Qualifikationszeiten, is not out yet — the DSV's own page lists it as expected but not yet linked. So a Richtzeit is guidance only: nothing is binding until the DSV publishes the DJM 2027 Qualifikationszeiten, and it is those numbers a swimmer will be entered against.

The tables

DSV qualifying times, 2026

Each Ausschreibung's own table, exactly as published — including the values where the DSV's two files disagree with each other.

DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten Deutsche Jahrgangsmeisterschaften Schwimmen 2026 · June 9 – 13, 2026 Show times Hide times
Long course (50 m) · Female Scroll sideways for the rest of the columns
Event DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten Jahrgang 2012 DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten Jahrgang 2011 DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten Jahrgang 2010 DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten Jahrgang 2009 DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten Jahrgang 2008 DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten Jahrgänge 2008–2012 (jahrgangsübergreifend, DJM 2026 relays)
50 m Free 28.6028.1027.8027.5027.20—
100 m Free 1:01.801:00.801:00.2059.8059.40—
200 m Free 2:13.802:11.802:10.002:09.502:08.50—
400 m Free 4:42.004:35.004:33.004:30.804:26.50—
800 m Free 9:42.009:30.009:26.009:17.009:14.00—
1500 m Free 18:33.0018:19.0018:15.0018:10.0017:55.00—
50 m Back 32.4032.0031.7031.3031.10—
100 m Back 1:10.301:09.001:08.001:07.301:07.00—
200 m Back 2:31.602:29.502:27.702:25.502:23.70—
50 m Breast 36.1035.7035.2034.8034.50—
100 m Breast 1:19.001:17.501:16.201:15.701:15.10—
200 m Breast 2:50.002:47.602:45.402:42.502:41.00—
50 m Fly 30.5030.0029.8029.4029.00—
100 m Fly 1:08.001:07.001:06.301:05.501:04.80—
200 m Fly 2:32.802:30.002:26.802:25.502:24.50—
200 m IM 2:31.302:29.002:27.502:26.702:26.20—
400 m IM 5:21.405:17.005:13.005:11.505:10.00—
Relays (club entries)
4×100 m Free relay —————4:10.00
4×100 m Medley relay —————4:38.80
Long course (50 m) · Male Scroll sideways for the rest of the columns
Event DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten Jahrgang 2012 DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten Jahrgang 2011 DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten Jahrgang 2010 DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten Jahrgang 2009 DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten Jahrgang 2008 DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten Jahrgänge 2008–2012 (jahrgangsübergreifend, DJM 2026 relays)
50 m Free 26.8025.8025.0024.7024.30—
100 m Free 58.8056.4054.8054.0053.30—
200 m Free 2:09.002:03.201:59.801:58.701:57.30—
400 m Free 4:31.604:20.004:14.604:08.504:07.00—
800 m Free 9:25.009:05.008:51.908:33.808:30.00—
1500 m Free 17:55.0017:12.0016:51.2016:23.1016:20.00—
50 m Back 31.1029.9028.9028.5028.20—
100 m Back 1:07.001:04.501:02.001:01.501:00.90—
200 m Back 2:25.002:20.002:16.002:14.502:13.50—
50 m Breast 33.9032.3031.4031.0030.50—
100 m Breast 1:14.301:11.701:09.501:08.701:07.90—
200 m Breast 2:41.802:36.702:31.502:30.002:28.00—
50 m Fly 28.9027.6026.7026.4026.00—
100 m Fly 1:04.801:01.5059.6059.0058.00—
200 m Fly 2:28.002:19.002:16.002:12.502:11.00—
200 m IM 2:26.502:21.002:17.002:14.002:12.50—
400 m IM 5:10.005:01.004:51.604:47.004:42.00—
Relays (club entries)
4×100 m Free relay —————3:51.20
4×100 m Medley relay —————4:16.70
Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten "Road to DJM" 2027 qualifying meets (club-hosted, March–May 2027) · 2027-03/2027-05 Show times Hide times
Long course (50 m) · Female Scroll sideways for the rest of the columns
Event Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten Jahrgang 2009 Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten Jahrgang 2010 Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten Jahrgang 2011 Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten Jahrgang 2012 Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten Jahrgang 2013
50 m Free 28.7028.9029.0029.3030.00
100 m Free 1:02.401:03.001:03.401:04.101:05.90
200 m Free 2:14.702:18.002:20.102:21.002:25.10
400 m Free 4:39.604:47.304:47.704:59.105:01.40
800 m Free 9:49.809:42.8010:05.0010:12.4010:24.20
1500 m Free 18:44.8019:02.0019:12.5019:35.7019:58.80
50 m Back 32.6033.8034.2034.3035.20
100 m Back 1:10.501:12.501:12.801:13.101:15.40
200 m Back 2:31.002:32.802:35.702:37.602:43.10
50 m Breast 37.0037.2037.2037.9038.30
100 m Breast 1:20.001:20.301:21.701:22.201:23.50
200 m Breast 2:51.002:52.702:56.002:58.003:01.40
50 m Fly 30.9031.2031.5031.7032.90
100 m Fly 1:08.001:09.001:11.701:12.301:14.60
200 m Fly 2:35.002:37.302:39.702:41.802:46.00
200 m IM 2:33.402:34.102:37.402:40.802:43.00
400 m IM 5:18.005:23.905:33.705:35.805:43.70
Long course (50 m) · Male Scroll sideways for the rest of the columns
Event Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten Jahrgang 2009 Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten Jahrgang 2010 Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten Jahrgang 2011 Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten Jahrgang 2012 Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten Jahrgang 2013
50 m Free 25.5026.0026.8027.6028.70
100 m Free 55.8056.9058.501:00.401:03.50
200 m Free 2:03.402:04.802:10.502:14.602:19.60
400 m Free 4:17.004:23.904:29.504:42.504:52.20
800 m Free 9:01.109:10.609:31.109:45.9010:09.30
1500 m Free 17:33.7017:42.9018:17.2018:51.4019:33.50
50 m Back 29.8030.9031.4032.8033.40
100 m Back 1:06.101:06.301:07.401:10.701:12.60
200 m Back 2:22.102:25.402:28.602:34.602:36.40
50 m Breast 32.5032.9033.9036.0036.40
100 m Breast 1:10.301:14.001:15.601:18.201:21.40
200 m Breast 2:36.902:41.502:47.302:50.002:55.80
50 m Fly 27.5028.0028.9030.2031.30
100 m Fly 1:02.401:02.501:04.601:08.701:11.20
200 m Fly 2:23.802:25.702:29.802:39.802:41.00
200 m IM 2:18.402:22.002:27.202:33.402:38.60
400 m IM 5:02.005:06.605:15.205:22.905:34.70
Deutsche Meisterschaften 2026 (Langbahn) Qualifikationszeiten 137. Deutsche Meisterschaften Schwimmen · April 23 – 26, 2026 Show times Hide times
Long course (50 m) · Female Scroll sideways for the rest of the columns
Event Deutsche Meisterschaften 2026 (Langbahn) Qualifikationszeiten
50 m Free 27.46
100 m Free 59.81
200 m Free 2:09.65
400 m Free 4:32.49
800 m Free 9:18.63
1500 m Free 17:46.52
50 m Back 31.11
100 m Back 1:06.75
200 m Back 2:23.65
50 m Breast 34.22
100 m Breast 1:14.74
200 m Breast 2:40.78
50 m Fly 28.92
100 m Fly 1:04.32
200 m Fly 2:22.68
200 m IM 2:26.89
400 m IM 5:11.28
Long course (50 m) · Male Scroll sideways for the rest of the columns
Event Deutsche Meisterschaften 2026 (Langbahn) Qualifikationszeiten
50 m Free 24.34
100 m Free 53.57
200 m Free 1:57.34
400 m Free 4:08.43
800 m Free 8:36.11
1500 m Free 16:23.12
50 m Back 27.50
100 m Back 59.40
200 m Back 2:10.03
50 m Breast 30.02
100 m Breast 1:05.99
200 m Breast 2:24.28
50 m Fly 25.82
100 m Fly 57.22
200 m Fly 2:09.08
200 m IM 2:11.65
400 m IM 4:42.65
Deutsche Kurzbahnmeisterschaften 2025 Pflichtzeiten Deutsche Kurzbahnmeisterschaften im Schwimmen 2025 · November 13 – 16, 2025 Show times Hide times
Short course (25 m) · Female Scroll sideways for the rest of the columns
Event Deutsche Kurzbahnmeisterschaften 2025 Pflichtzeiten
50 m Free 26.70
100 m Free 58.10
200 m Free 2:05.90
400 m Free 4:25.00
800 m Free 9:03.40
1500 m Free 17:15.50
50 m Back 30.30
100 m Back 1:04.90
200 m Back 2:19.80
50 m Breast 33.30
100 m Breast 1:12.60
200 m Breast 2:36.40
50 m Fly 28.10
100 m Fly 1:02.50
200 m Fly 2:18.80
100 m IM 1:05.90
200 m IM 2:22.70
400 m IM 5:02.80
Short course (25 m) · Male Scroll sideways for the rest of the columns
Event Deutsche Kurzbahnmeisterschaften 2025 Pflichtzeiten
50 m Free 23.70
100 m Free 52.00
200 m Free 1:54.10
400 m Free 4:01.30
800 m Free 8:22.40
1500 m Free 15:58.40
50 m Back 26.80
100 m Back 57.80
200 m Back 2:06.20
50 m Breast 29.10
100 m Breast 1:04.00
200 m Breast 2:20.40
50 m Fly 25.10
100 m Fly 55.60
200 m Fly 2:05.60
100 m IM 58.90
200 m IM 2:08.00
400 m IM 4:34.50

Where the DSV's own documents disagree, we follow the PDF

The Road-to-DJM Richtzeiten are published twice: once as a PDF for humans, once as a CSV for meet-management software. They disagree on 110 of their 170 cells. Most gaps are under half a second; the worst is three seconds, in the women's Jahrgang 2010 1500 freestyle.

We publish the PDF values — it's the human-facing document the DSV links as the Richtzeiten sheet, and its numbers are internally consistent with the previous cycle's table. Neither file carries a modification date, so recency can't settle it. If your club's entry software shows a slightly different number, this is why.

One oddity we've reproduced rather than tidied: in the women's 800 freestyle the Jahrgang 2009 and 2010 standards are inverted, the older year group carrying the slower time. That's in the DSV's own data, in both files. We print what's published.

The conditions

Three things besides the time itself

The meet has to count

Qualifying times must be swum in a 50m pool at DSV-approved Road to DJM competitions, inside the qualification window — for DJM 2026 that ran from 1 December 2025 to 25 May 2026. A fast swim at an unapproved meet is still a best time, but it doesn't qualify.

The time is sufficient, not necessary

Hitting the Qualifikationszeit guarantees a start. Below the entry cap, remaining places are back-filled from the DSV-Bestenliste, so swimmers who missed the time can still be admitted. There's a floor at the other end: DJM entries worth fewer than 4 Rudolph points are rejected outright, 5 for the DKM.

Rudolph points are not World Aquatics points

They're the DSV's own national scoring table. If you want a score that compares your swimmer's 200 backstroke to their 100 freestyle, or this season to last, that's World Aquatics points — a different scale entirely.

The open-class championships

Two meets have no age dimension: the Deutsche Meisterschaften (long course, Berlin, April 2026) and the Deutsche Kurzbahnmeisterschaften (short course, Wuppertal, November 2025), each with a single Pflichtzeiten table per gender. The DKM accepts entry times swum in either a 25m or a 50m pool against that same table, so its standards shouldn't be read as pure short-course cuts.

A word about the Jahrgang year

Because German classes are pure birth-year, a child born in December races the same standard as one born the previous January — nearly a full year of growth apart, on the same line of the same table. It evens out, and it is invisible in any table you will ever read.

Where a swimmer is in their development is a better question than which side of the Jahrgang line they fell on.

Reading

How to read a number like this

Questions

Common questions

Was sind Pflichtzeiten (Qualifikationszeiten) im Wettkampfschwimmen?

In competitive swimming, the qualifying times a swimmer must achieve to be entered for a championship — the DSV publishes them per Jahrgang, event, gender and course. The same German word also describes school-swimming requirements, which is an unrelated meaning.

What are the DJM 2026 Qualifikationszeiten?

The fixed qualifying table for the German age-group national championships in Berlin, June 2026, covering Jahrgänge 2008 to 2012 across 17 individual events per class. The full table is on this page.

How does Jahrgang work?

A swimmer's class is their year of birth, for the whole calendar year. Birthdays don't move anyone mid-season — the entire cohort moves up together on 1 January.

Can my swimmer be entered without the qualifying time?

Sometimes. The published time guarantees a start; below the entry cap the field is topped up from the DSV-Bestenliste. Entries worth fewer than 4 Rudolph points are rejected regardless.

The lookup

Where does your swimmer actually stand?

See where your swimmer stands in their Jahrgang — enter a time for the gap to every DSV standard their birth year is measured against.

Open the standards lookup

Straight to a Jahrgang

Source

Where these numbers come from

Ausschreibung Deutsche Jahrgangsmeisterschaften Schwimmen 2026 (Version 1 – 20. März 2026) Deutscher Schwimm-Verband e.V. (DSV), Abteilung Wettkampfsport Schwimmen · Published March 20, 2026 · Retrieved July 26, 2026

Richtzeiten für Qualifikationswettkämpfe zur Road-to-DJM 2027 (PDF) Deutscher Schwimm-Verband e.V. (DSV) · Published July 14, 2026 · Retrieved July 26, 2026

Richtzeiten für Qualifikationswettkämpfe zur Road-to-DJM 2027 (CSV, EasyWk import) Deutscher Schwimm-Verband e.V. (DSV) · Retrieved July 26, 2026

Ausschreibung 137. Deutsche Meisterschaften Schwimmen 2026 Deutscher Schwimm-Verband e.V. (DSV), Abteilung Wettkampfsport Schwimmen · Published February 9, 2026 · Retrieved July 26, 2026

Ausschreibung Deutsche Kurzbahnmeisterschaften im Schwimmen 2025 Deutscher Schwimm-Verband e.V. (DSV), Abteilung Wettkampfsport Schwimmen · Published August 30, 2025 · Retrieved July 26, 2026

DSV – DJM (Deutsche Jahrgangsmeisterschaften) event page Deutscher Schwimm-Verband e.V. (DSV) · Retrieved July 26, 2026

What to know about this transcription

  • DJM 2027 qualifying times are NOT yet published. On the DSV DJM page the entries "Auschreibung DJM 2027" and "Qualifikationsliste DJM 2027" are plain text with no download link (checked 2026-07-26). The DJM_2026 set is therefore the most recent published DJM qualifying-time table, and R2DJM_2027 is the only forward-looking DSV youth standard currently published.
  • DSV publishes two conflicting versions of the Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten on the same page: a PDF and a CSV (for EasyWk import). 110 of 170 cells differ: 32 by <=0.10 s, 53 by <=0.50 s, 23 by <=1.00 s and 2 by more — female Jg. 2010 1500 m Freistil (PDF 19:02,0 vs CSV 18:59,00, 3.00 s) and male Jg. 2012 1500 m Freistil (PDF 18:51,4 vs CSV 18:50,00, 1.40 s). Other notable cases: male Jg. 2010 100 m Brust PDF 1:14,0 vs CSV 1:13,00; male Jg. 2009 200 m Brust PDF 2:36,9 vs CSV 2:36,00. This dataset uses the PDF (the human-facing "Richtzeiten … als PDF" link). A full machine-generated diff of all 110 differing cells is in germany-dsv-report.md. A club importing the CSV into EasyWk will see slightly different standards.
  • Source anomaly (not an extraction error): in the Road-to-DJM 2027 Richtzeiten, female 800 m Freistil is NOT monotonic by age — Jg. 2009 is 9:49,8 while Jg. 2010 is 9:42,8, i.e. the older year group has the SLOWER standard. The same inversion is present in the Road-to-DJM 2026 sheet and in the DSV CSV, so it is in the DSV data, not in this extraction.
  • The DKM 2025 Pflichtzeiten are filed under SCM (the championship course), but DSV section 2.13 explicitly accepts entry times swum in either a 25 m or a 50 m pool against this same table. Consumers must not treat this as a pure SCM-only cut.
  • DSV has no season-wide standards document; every set comes from its own event Ausschreibung and carries its own literal Qualifikationszeitraum in standardSets[].validity. The top-level season block is a span over the meets covered, not a DSV-defined season.
  • Meeting a qualifying time is sufficient but not always necessary: entry caps are back-filled from the DSV Bestenliste, so swimmers slower than the standard can still be admitted. Conversely, DJM entries worth <4 Rudolph points (DKM: <5) are rejected outright.
  • Relay standards are aggregate minimums (sum of four individual entry times), only the top 16 relays start; they are stored under ageGroup JG_2008_2012 with gender male/female/mixed.
  • No DSV standards were found for the "Deutsche Meisterschaften Sprint- und Lagenmeisterschaften" (Finals 2026, Hannover, 23-26 July 2026): that meet qualifies purely on Bestenliste rank, with no time table.
  • Modeling fix 2026-07-26 (no time value changed): DKM_2025_SCM now carries acceptedCourses ["SCM", "LCM"], the machine-readable form of the rule its notes already stated (DSV section 2.13 accepts an entry time swum in a 25 m or a 50 m pool against this one table). The cells stay filed under SCM, the championship course; a long-course lookup now sees the set instead of silently dropping it.