Scope of the judicial duty to investigate facts (Aufklärungspflicht) in administrative litigation

The Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) granted the parties' complaints, finding them well-founded and permitting the appeal to proceed to the full court, with the explicit purpose of clarifying the requirements for the judicial duty to investigate facts in administrative proceedings. The case concerns a dispute over the scope and application of the court's obligation to elucidate evidence (Aufklärungspflicht) within the German administrative litigation framework, specifically addressing procedural standards that determine whether lower courts have met their investigative duties. The decisive legal basis involves the doctrine of the judicial duty to take necessary measures to ascertain the material facts (Amtsaufklärungspflicht) in administrative cases, which the court deemed significant enough to warrant a decision from the full panel to establish uniform case law on this procedural standard.