Notice periods (Kündigungsfrist)

1. The statutory notice periods

The basic period is four weeks, ending on either the 15th or the last day of a calendar month. That end-date requirement matters: four weeks’ notice given on the 20th does not end on the 17th of the next month, it runs to the end of that month.

For the employer, the period lengthens with your service. These are statutory minimums; a contract or collective agreement can be more generous.

2. Why your notice is shorter than theirs

The lengthening scale applies to the employer’s notice, not yours. After fifteen years your employer needs six months to dismiss you, while you can still resign on four weeks unless the contract says otherwise.

This is intentional: the extended periods protect employees who would find it hard to move after long service, and there is no corresponding need to lock the employee in.

A contract can extend your notice, and often does for senior roles, but it can never give the employer a shorter period than you have. A clause doing that is invalid, and the employer is held to the longer period.

3. How to resign properly

The written form requirement applies to you as well. A resignation by email is as invalid as a dismissal by email, which occasionally works in an employee’s favour and more often causes confusion about when the notice actually started.

1. 1

   Check your contractual notice period

   It may be longer than the statutory four weeks. Count from the permitted end date backwards to find your last possible submission day.

2. 2

   Write a short signed letter

   Name, date, a sentence giving notice, the intended end date, and your handwritten signature. No reasons are required and none need to be given.

3. 3

   Deliver it so that receipt is provable

   By hand against a signed acknowledgement, or by registered post. The notice period runs from receipt, so proof of the date matters.

4. 4

   Ask for confirmation and your Arbeitszeugnis

   Written confirmation of the end date, and a reference. Request the reference in writing, since you are legally entitled to one.

5. 5

   Settle holiday and overtime before you go

   Agree whether remaining leave is taken during notice or paid out, and check any overtime balance. This is much harder to resolve after your last day.

6. 6

   Think about the benefit consequences

   Resigning without good cause generally triggers a blocking period on unemployment benefit. If you do not have another job lined up, get advice first.

4. What happens during notice

Employment continues normally. You are paid, you accrue holiday, your insurance continues, and your obligations continue: the notice period is not a formality you can absent yourself through.

An employer may release you from working while continuing to pay you. Whether that release also uses up your holiday depends on how it is worded, so get it in writing and check.

• Full pay and full obligations for the whole period
• Holiday continues to accrue, and untaken leave is taken or paid out
• Freistellung means being paid without working; check whether it consumes your holiday
• A company car, laptop or phone is normally returned at the end, not at the start of notice
• Confidentiality obligations continue after the employment ends
• Any post-contractual non-compete requires compensation to be enforceable