TreeofLife,
It seems a common practice in this lab. There are 5 more people who worked as PhD students here at some point but didn't get a PhD by the end of their contracts. Need to notice, that PhD contracts here are for 3 years, with a sometimes possible extension for 6 months.
In my case there was one project progress evaluation meeting, where the Prof. showed to the commission that gave this research grant some results related to the performance of the developed instrument. After the meeting, he only told me that the whole project won't be extended after the end of the current period, but that anyway wasn't an expectation before.
Talking to the head of the department (we don't have graduate schools in the University structure) can help to make the situation more determined. Nice idea, thanks.

Hello everybody,

I'm doing a Ph.D. in Germany. My contract is over, but my supervisor says that what I did doesn't count as a Ph.D., since I was mainly doing engineering / instrumental development. However, I know there is a good value of the work I've done. I thought to write up a dissertation with a focus on instrumental part, and try to apply to another lab to defend it there. Perhaps as it is, or complemented with additional research in another lab. Do you think it's an optimal solution? Would another lab allow a Ph.D. student to defend research made at another place? What what be your advice in such situation?

Looking forward to hear your ideas. Thank you.