German here: Startled by your use of the word "Gangwahlschalter" (I had never heard the word before) I did a quick google search and apparently there is a German Dictionary company that actually tracks use of words and its synonyms. A query to their database confirmed my intuition that "Schalthebel" would be the word people would use. (src: https://www.dwds.de/r/plot/?view=1&corpus=zeitungenxl&norm=d...)