The profession of a judge in Germany is subject to ongoing controversial assignments of tasks and functions. In essays, interviews, and speeches, political stakeholders, scholars, and not least judges themselves postulate which guiding principles judicial actions should adhere to. As a result, despite the normative constitution of judicial actions, a plural spectrum of modern judicial models emerges. This work examines and illustrates this spectrum of guiding principles based on publications from the years 1965-1998. Four case studies analyze judicial scandals. The legal dogmatics of the principle of legal binding (Art. 20 para. 3 GG) is then investigated to what extent it codifies judicial models. Finally, an attempt is made to categorize the spectrum of guiding principles into five judicial perspectives: the state- and law-related perspective, the individual case-related perspective, the socio-political perspective, the protective perspective, and the service perspective.