The updated second edition of the “Curriculum cardiology”, first edition 2013, aims to show which competences a cardiologist should nowadays master. It is very pleasing that in this second edition representatives of the Young German Cardiac Society (Young DGK) have contributed as authors. The increasing specialization within cardiology should, however, only represent one side of the coin: there must also still be a common foundation of cardiology, embedded in the discipline “internal medicine”. This foundation includes the basis of theoretical knowledge, practical skills (competence levels I–III) and an occupational and professional attitude of the (prospective) cardiologist. New additions to the advanced training since the first edition of the curriculum in 2013 are, for example a chapter on digital cardiology, the further training in psychocardiology, which was newly introduced into the model further training regulations and finally also the explicit formulation of shared decision making in the interests of cardiac patients. The curriculum should give the prospective cardiologist the possibility to structure the further training as efficiently as possible and ultimately to retain and expand that which has been learned in the sense of a “professional lifelong” qualification. The curriculum also aims to reach the trainers and the Medical Councils and demonstrate which contents and skills should be mediated in the further training to become a cardiologist from the perspective of the German Cardiac Society (DGK).