Like our Chancellor Merkel always says: "We need more skilled personnel." In Germany, getting a job as a software engineer is quite easy. Lots of businesses don't have any and are in dire need of automation and tooling. Many companies hire professionals for their teams; even though many, especially in big companies, are just project managers and control instances for commissions sent to other countries, like India.
However, there is a big gap in wages. Many developers did not study the profession. They have more trouble finding a job and get a lot lower salary. People who studied have the clear advantage and even without any professional experience can score high entry wages.
So, how much money are we talking about? According to German news sites, like Golem , the average salary for new professionals (~3 years of experience) is about 30k€ and can rise up to over 50-60k€ on average after three to six more years. If you want more, you should go into management. According to the study, IT managers earn 113k€ on average and CTOs are at about 146k€.
Well, with the disclaimer that I am working for one, I can say that there are also companies, which rather than paying the market average, evaluate your skill and contribution over the years and are willing to pay a lot more money if you dedicate yourself and meet certain (known) requirements to further yourself, your profession and your career path. I think that's really fair, especially since you dedicate so much of your life to that company.
Also, as usual, specialists of niche markets (Oracle DB specialist, ABAP engineer, Delphi/Cobol/... developer) usually tend to get more money. How much? Well, that's entirely up to the employer.