Psychological factors play a major role in shaping public acceptance and engagement concerning energy transition pathways. Research addressing the mental representation of pathways to change current energy systems remains scarce however, especially with respect to national differences. We use a facet theoretical approach to test the assumption that people’s mental representation of energy transition pathways is structured according to three facets: Facet A, the Level of a pathway (individual behaviours vs. societal actions vs. technologies), Facet B, the Type of a pathway (efficiency vs. curtailment), and Facet C, the Impact Domain that is affected (economy vs. community vs. human health vs. nature vs. life quality). A German student sample (N = 142) rated thirty items derived from the facet design. Multidimensional scaling was used to identify regional patterns corresponding to the facets. Facet A yields wedge-like regions for individual, societal, and technological pathways, respectively. Facet B yields a circular pattern with curtailment pathways located in the centre and efficiency pathways in the periphery. Facet C yields a pattern contrasting impacts on economy with those on nature. Results support our assumptions and closely replicate the findings from a previous study with a Norwegian student sample (Böhm, Doran, Rødeseike & Pfister, 2019).