In Germany, each state (Land) individually decides how the curriculum should look like and to which extent the schools are given space to construct their own. For years, one instrument has been impacting curriculum practice in the schools: national education standards for selected main subjects. These standards focus on competencies to be achieved according to different levels of quality and are expected to bring a certain degree of cohesion across schools - even across Länder boundaries. Another development is that schools in Germany are required to develop one- or two-year goal contracts with governance authorities. These contracts focus on profile areas of individual schools including the curriculum. Additionally, schools are given various degrees of autonomy depending on the Land where they are located. Within this relative autonomy, school can attune their own curriculum to local demands. Lastly, schools have to work on getting and using data-driven feedback. In sum, the curriculum work is framed by a mix of external parameters. In this contribution a conceptual curriculum framework for understanding a curriculum and its implementation is presented. The framework is called the curriculum triangle. Its aim is to help analyse curriculum materials and textbooks, accounting for the matters mentioned above.