How to write a cover letter for a job in Germany

The cover letter is the Anschreiben. It is one part of the Bewerbungsunterlagen, the application documents, which the Bundesagentur für Arbeit lists as the Anschreiben, the CV (Lebenslauf), a photo, and certificates and references.

Do not confuse it with the Motivationsschreiben. That is a longer, more personal statement of your motives and goals, used mostly for university places, scholarships and some competitive programmes, and sent in addition to the Anschreiben when it is asked for (StepStone). A job advert that asks for an Anschreiben wants the one-page letter described here.

The letter is still the default, but it is no longer universal. Some large employers have made it optional, and online forms often have no place for one. Karrierebibel advises sending one unless the advert says plainly that you need not. That is our advice too: where the form has an upload for it, use it.

Write the letter in German unless the advert is in English. deutschland.de, the federal government's information portal, gives the same rule and suggests having a native speaker read your documents before you send them.

One A4 page is the norm (Karrierebibel; the University of Ulm's career service says the same). The layout follows DIN 5008, the German standard for business letters, and Karrierebibel's guide to it sets out the order:

1. Your name and contact details at the top.
2. The employer's address on the left, with the contact person's name if you have it.
3. Place and date on the right, written "Hamburg, 07.10.2026".
4. A subject line in bold, two lines below the date, with no word "Betreff" in front of it: "Bewerbung als Junior Data Analyst". Add the advert's reference number if it has one.
5. The greeting, the body, the sign-off and your signature.
6. "Anlagen" at the foot, listing what you have enclosed.

Use a plain font at 11 or 12 point. Guides differ by a point, and none asks for more than 12. For fonts and margins in general, see Cover letter format.

Two points of punctuation catch most foreign applicants. After the comma that ends the greeting, the first word of the letter starts in lower case, unless it is a noun or "Sie". And the sign-off takes no punctuation at all. Both are rules in Duden, the standard reference for German spelling. (Swiss usage differs; this page is about Germany.)

Write to the reader as Sie throughout, even if the advert says du: e-fellows gives the same advice. Sign by hand. For a PDF sent online, a scanned signature is usual but not required (Karrierebibel).

• The Lebenslauf is tabular and in reverse order, the most recent first (StepStone). Many German guides, StepStone among them, tell you to sign it with place and date at the foot.
• A photo is voluntary. Since the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) came into force in 2006 it has not been a requirement, but it is still widely used (Karrierebibel, deutschland.de). If you include one, use a professional portrait, not a holiday picture.
• Certificates and references: copies of your degree certificates and, if you have worked before, your Arbeitszeugnisse (written references from employers). Send copies, never originals.

Two things belong in the letter when the advert asks for them. A salary expectation (Gehaltsvorstellung) is given as a gross annual figure in the last paragraph (Karrierebibel). A start date (Eintrittstermin) depends on your notice period; give a date rather than "immediately" if you are employed (Karrierebibel).

Aditi Raman has just finished a master's degree in business informatics in Hamburg and works there as a Werkstudentin, a student employee, at a parcel company. She is applying to be a junior data analyst at Kestrelwerk Logistik GmbH. The advert is in English, the team works in English, and it asks for a salary expectation and a start date. Both letters are fiction: the people and the company are invented.

The German letter is the English one in German form, not a word-for-word translation. The address block is fuller, the date is numeric, and the body sentences are built the German way. If you write in German as a second language, have a native speaker read the letter before you send it.

• An English layout. A letter with no address block, no date and no subject line looks unfinished to a German reader. Use the DIN 5008 order above.
• Spelling the reader's or the company's name wrong. deutschland.de lists it among the mistakes that end an application. Copy the name from the advert.
• Missing documents. "The usual application documents" means the letter, the CV and your certificates. Leaving the certificates out is another mistake on the same deutschland.de list.
• Hedging. "Ich würde mich freuen" and "ich könnte" sound unsure; the University of Ulm advises against the subjunctive. "Ich freue mich" says the same thing.
• No signature on the letter or, where German guides expect it, on the CV.
• Repeating the CV. The letter should say why this job and what you will bring; the CV holds the dates.

For the parts of a letter that do not change from country to country, start with How to write a cover letter. For greetings in other languages, see How to address a cover letter.