In US criminal procedure law, the termination of proceedings through a formal confession by the defendant (plea of guilty) is legally regulated. In German legal practice, a conviction of the defendant based solely on a concise confession is also considered permissible, even though this is not provided for in the law. The author takes this as an opportunity for a comparative legal presentation and analysis of the plea of guilty, as a systematic examination of the American model for corresponding reform considerations is still lacking. If a defendant in the Anglo-American legal sphere pleads guilty in the sense of the accusation (plea of guilty), it is seen as a substantive confession and procedurally as an offer directed to the court to regard the question of guilt as already decided by this admission of guilt. The judge is responsible for this.