Eligible for WVP,applying for 6 month Tourist Visa and no permanent job?

The number one reason for visa denial is lack of proof of ties to home. Welcome to the largest statistic.
You should look here though, specifically about half-way down. This type of denial is not permanent.

As for the VWP, this is straight from the State Department:
>I was denied a visa on a recent visa application, may I use the VWP?

A recent visa denial for any reason could result in denial of an authorization via ESTA, additional questioning at the port of entry, or denial of admission to the United States. Applicants who are uncertain of whether they qualify for VWP travel may choose to apply for a visa.

Next time, take the time to read the conditions of your entry. The question even being on the ESTA should have given you pause.

One more thing, being denied a visa does not make you ineligible to use the VWP in the future. It may make it practically impossible, but you may still get in at the discretion of the official you receive.
The fact that you were denied entry to the US makes you ineligible to use the VWP in the future. One of the requirements is that you have never been refused entry, which you now have been.

It's not just a matter of lack of ties to your home country, but also a matter of showing that you have sufficient finances to pay for your trip. It's both. If you really feel you can show sufficient finances (e.g., bank account, inheristance, investments) AND can demonstrate ties to Germany that would make you want to return, then you can request another interview. A visa officer has to regard all non-immigrant visa applicants as intended immigrants. You need to show otherwise (yes, it's unfair, but you can put at least part of the blame on the thousands and thousands and thousands of people who went to the U.S. on tourist visas and didn't go home). Why you went to the U.S. on the visa waiver program when you'd had a visa denied, without inquiring more on your own, escapes me. The visa waiver program is expressly intended for people who would otherwise be eligible for a visa (i.e., a courtesy for low risk visitors). Hence the eligibility only for countries with a low rate of overstays. It's not a way to get around visa eligibility (though many people regard it as such). You can still apply for a tourist visa in the future. Read up on the regs beforehand. And start working on how to show you'd have sufficient motivation to return to Germany rather than, say, trying to find a job in the U.S.

Hi bzookaj,

you're right, the denial of my visa is not permanent and I can apply anytime for a new visa for the USA. That's what they told me at the consulate in Munich and I never denied that.
However, the border guards at the US border informed me that I am not eligible anymore for the Visa Waver Program - and that it would be permanent.

I was aware that I might not get permission to enter the USA, that's why I tried it over the land border as I anyway planed to travel in Canada. You wrote yourself in your post that "A recent visa denial for any reason could result in denial of an authorization via ESTA". So, what does the word "could" mean?
Why did my ESTA-application got approved and I was authorized to enter the United states on the basis of the Visa Waver Program, even so I did answer truthfully that I got a visa denied - later the border guards refused to look at my ESTA-Confirmation and informed me that never whatsoever I am eligible for the Visa Waver Program once I got ever denied a visa. Isn't this a contradiction? Either it is a bug in the ESTA-system or the border guards don't know their own regulations?

I actually read the information about the "strong ties", before I applied for a visa and one of the examples they mentioned was a bank account in someones home country. Obviously the bank account was not enough and I was not allowed to show more evidence I had with me, because the interview was finished after 30 seconds.

Good luck!

The ultimate judgment lies with the official you get at the border. It states so specifically in the rules for using the VWP.
Technically, you were eligible, so your ESTA was approved. They said you were not (mistakenly or not). Since they have the final say, then you were not eligible. Not that you have been refused entry to the US, even the ESTA should now deny your applications.

It may seem contradictory at times, and yes, the border officials may know the exact rules on occasion, but what they say goes, and you have no right to appeal the decision (another condition for using the VWP).
Be glad you were entering at a land border, and not having just arrived on a plane.