Reorganization of finances after house construction, building savings contract, occupational pension scheme, Riester

That's exactly right. Just talk to the bank you trust. Some cannot offer the VL for ETFs, but usually they have other stock-based products for VL. The employer doesn't care where he transfers the money.

Can I then send the employer the account details of my private ETF contract (with Trade Republic)? That way I would completely take the (expensive) bank out of the equation.

No, that is not possible. I don't know exactly why. I think possible government subsidies are involved. ETFs, as far as I know, are only available through finvesto and comdirect.

thanks for the report. The building savings contract would have been gone long ago. But what do I do with my girlfriend’s VWL? We already asked the employer. They are inflexible and don’t know about ETFs etc.

Just as an idea, she doesn’t have to agree with you: I don’t know where you live and whether you are planning to have children. But maybe you could become a member of a housing cooperative in a larger city/attractive for you or attractive as a place to study. You would then receive an annual dividend and have the “later” option to rent a small/large apartment cheaply in that city. And you do something for the common good. ;-) I just asked Aunt Google briefly, who claims that there are ETF savings plans for VWL as well. But I don’t want to copy anything here again because I already received 2/3 warnings. I assume with the 3rd it’s “game over”. :-( I also think that the employer is the wrong contact person for your question. For me, it was like this: I chose one of all possible investments, signed the contract, and then forwarded it to the employer. I wouldn’t have expected them to advise on VWL, because in my view that’s not their job and also does not correspond to their training. But maybe I’m wrong.

I have a VWL-ETF savings plan for economics at E-Base. To my knowledge, it is saved for 6 years, then there is a holding period of 1 year.