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The Federal Council approved a law on Friday that regulates the appearance of civil servants.
It contains regulations on the extent to which tattoos, piercings, beards or other body jewelry are permitted for civil servants.
The law met with resistance from Islamic associations because they feared a headscarf ban through the back door.
Left politicians also criticized the regulation, which was passed by the Bundestag in April, largely unnoticed by the public.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior made it clear that there can only be bans on religious clothing in exceptional cases.
The law states that the wearing of religious features can be restricted or prohibited "if they are objectively capable of impairing trust in the civil servant's neutral conduct of office".
In the justification reference is made to the state's duty of neutrality.
Examples are the Muslim headscarf, the Jewish kippah and the Christian cross.
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The religious policy spokeswoman for the left in the Bundestag, Christine Buchholz, whose party voted against the law, said the Union and the SPD could not explain “why a law that is supposed to ban Nazi tattoos and unconstitutional symbols also includes the possibility of prohibiting To enforce headscarves, kippahs or crosses for civil servants ”.
In reality, this would primarily affect Muslim women and encourage racism and discrimination.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior emphasized that "of course" officials could continue to wear religious symbols and clothing.
This could only be forbidden "in a few exceptional cases", "namely when the state appears to be classically sovereign in relation to citizens," she said.
The Federal Constitutional Court ruled last year that the legislature may forbid Muslim trainee lawyers from wearing a headscarf during their practical training in the courtroom. In a case from Hesse, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the decision for an obligation to behave neutrally in terms of ideology and religion should be respected. A headscarf ban is therefore not mandatory (Ref .: 2 BvR 1333/17).