The European XFEL is an X-ray free electron laser user facility that is currently being built in Hamburg by an international consortium. The electron BPM system of the XFEL is developed by a collaboration of PSI, DESY, and CEA/Saclay/Irfu. Cavity BPMs will be used in all parts of the E-XFEL where highest resolution and lowest drift is required, e.g. in the undulators and some locations in the beam transfer lines. In the cryostats of the superconducting 17.5GeV main linac, 2/3rds of the BPMs will be buttons, while 1/3rd will be re-entrant cavities that promise higher resolution than buttons at lowbunch charges. The transfer lines will also be equipped with cost-efficient button BPMs. The BPM electronics is based on a modular system concept, with a common FPGA-based digital back-end design for all BPMs and pickup-specific analog RF front-ends. This paper introduces the design concepts and reports on the project status and measurement results of BPM pickup and electronics prototypes.