In reviews of university teacher training, those parts of the curriculum that are based on educational science have often been criticized for teaching theoretical knowledge that is perceived as practically irrelevant and non-cumulative. while the importance of the professional knowledge base per se is uncontested, it is less clear which educational topics such a knowledge base should include. this paper describes a Delphi study that aims to develop the taxonomy of core educational topics that should be taught in university teacher education. the Delphi study consisted of three consecutive rounds involving 49 experts of various professional backgrounds completing a standardized questionnaire. In the first round experts rated the relative importance of 213 topics from various aspects of the teaching profession. In order to reduce the number of relevant topics in the second and third round, experts had to choose a range of topics to be taught at university within a given time and a range of topics relevant for practical application. the results of the Delphi study show that the presented canon of topics was exhaustive and that experts from various disciplines involved in German teacher education share an understanding of topics relevant to the training of prospective teachers.