English has become the first foreign language in most schools in Germany. Learning English starts in primary school in Year 1 or 3. Considered as common knowledge, successful (foreign) language learning highly depends on the teachers’ professional competencies, including the ability to speak the target language fluently and to design lessons based on didactic principles applied in primary school. This talk addresses first the question what competences prospective English teachers are supposed to acquire and how primary English teacher education in Germany is organized. Second, the issue of out-field-teaching is raised, referring to the situation when teachers are supposed to teach a subject regularly without having obtained a subject-specific qualification during initial teacher qualification or in a post-qualification course. In contrast to other countries, primary school teachers in most German states are not trained as generalists but receive a formal qualification to teach particular subjects. As they teach almost all subjects, a number of German primary school teachers teach English without the specialization in English as a foreign language. Thus, the initial teacher education system in Germany contributes to the conditions that lead to out-of-field teaching. However, two positions in relation to this phenomenon arise in the literature: the opportunity and deficit position. If teachers feel adequately supported and possess or are willing to acquire the necessary competences, out-of-field teaching can be regarded as a learning opportunity. In contrast, there is the view that of out-of-field teaching is something to be prevented as teachers lack the necessary subject-specific knowledge. Against this background, an insight into theoretical approaches to understand and analyze this phenomenon will be given along with findings from empirical studies.