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Germany address examples & format

How to write a German address

German address format got you going, “Hä?” Not to fear. Smarty is here to explain exactly how to address a letter to your friends and customers in Germany. You can look at our geil sample German address examples here and try our suite of address validation tools for addresses in Germany below. Just enter an address, and we'll format, standardize, and validate it blitzschnell. That’s German slang for really fast.

Now, let's get into it with the basics. The German address format for shipping or mailing addresses should be written in all capital letters as follows:

  1. Addressee line - The recipient's name.
  2. Street house and house number - It should be these 2 items listed in this order forgoing any punctuation marks unless secondary address information is required (e.g. apartment number). Apartment numbers should appear after the street name separated by 2 forward slashes and spaces (e.g. street + number / / apartment number).
  3. Postal code and city - The postal code goes before the city in this instance and is not spearated by commas or other punctuation.
  4. COUNTRY - DEU, in all caps.
Germany address example

Germany address examples

Typical address example

Kapersburgstr. 9

61191 Rosbach

DEU

Address example with units

Danziger Str. 12A

10435 Berlin

DEU

Postal box example

Postfach 2

06196 Wettin-Löbejün

DEU

Smarty address validation tools

Smarty® has a suite of address validation tools that can format, standardize, and validate Germany addresses, plus addresses in 240+ other countries and territories worldwide. Validate your German address with our tools.
Use the Single Address Verification Tool to verify and format 1 address at a time, the Bulk Address Validation Tool to verify and format a list addresses simultaneously, or use the International Street Address API to integrate address validation and formatting programmatically into your software systems and workflows.

Postal information

Germany's national postal system, "Deutsche Post," was established in 1409. As of recent data, Deutsche Post services approximately 3,355,699 addresses, reflecting its extensive reach throughout Germany. The organization manages a substantial network, indicative of its role as a major postal service provider in the region.
Administrative area types and count
16 states
Administration area names and abbreviations

Baden-Württemberg - BW

Bavaria - BY

Berlin - BE

Brandenburg - BB

Bremen - HB

Hamburg - HH

Hesse - HE

Lower Saxony - NI

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern - MV

North Rhine-Westphalia - NW

Rhineland-Palatinate - RP

Saarland - SL

Saxony - SN

Saxony-Anhalt - ST

Schleswig-Holstein - SH

Thuringia - TH

Term to describe postal codes
postleitzahl
Postal code in language
postleitzahl
Postal code format
99999
Postal service provider and website

Country information

Get ready to explore interesting intricacies of Germany’s letter address format.

Country/territory name
Germany
ISO3
DEU
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code
DE
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code
DEU
ISO 3166-1 numeric country code
276
Endonym
Deutschland
Total land area
357,582 KM²
Capital
Berlin
Other major cities
Hamburg, Munich, Cologne

Population information

Total population
84,482,267 (2023)
Urban / rural distribution
77% / 23%
Urban population
65,051,346
Rural population
19,430,921
Official language
German
All languages spoken
German, English, French, Russian
Most commonly used postal language
German
CC-BY 4.0 from worldbank.org
Now that you've seen our Germany address examples and have become as wizard at German address formats, why not expand your expertise even further? Visit the international address formats page for information on other countries and territories we cover.

What our customers are saying

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We evaluated quite a few providers, and felt that Smarty was the right partner for us, given their user-friendly approach and robust support. It checked all of our boxes.
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