If someone has reported you to the police in Germany, or a letter says you are a suspect (Beschuldigter), a criminal investigation has started. It need not end in a trial: an investigation can be dropped, end with a payment and no conviction, or end with a fine by post. Which of these happens is often decided early, and mostly on paper. Here is how the process runs and what a conviction would mean for your record and your residence permit.
1. How a criminal case starts
Anyone can report a suspected offence (Strafanzeige) to the police, the public prosecutor's office (Staatsanwaltschaft) or a local court (§ 158(1) StPO). Once there are sufficient factual indications of an offence, the prosecutor's office must investigate (§ 152(2) StPO). A report cannot simply be withdrawn to end the case: the prosecutor, not the person who reported you, decides what happens.
A few offences are prosecuted only if the injured person files a formal complaint (Strafantrag), for example an insult (§ 194(1) StGB). That complaint must be made within three months of the person learning of the act and who did it (§ 77b StGB).
You may learn about the case from a police letter asking you to an interview or for a written statement, from a search, or not at all until a letter from the prosecutor or a court arrives. A traffic offence handled as a fine (Bußgeld) is a separate, administrative procedure; see the traffic fine guide.
2. The first things to do, and not to do
- Don't explain yourself to the police yet. As a suspect you need not attend a police interview and may stay silent. Our guide to a police letter as a suspect explains your rights to silence, a lawyer, the file and an interpreter.
- Don't contact the person who reported you, or the witnesses, about the case. Messages sent "to clear things up" often end up in the file.
- Keep everything: letters and envelopes, messages, photos, receipts, names of people who were there. Write down what happened while you still remember it, for your lawyer only.
- Watch the post. Some letters start short deadlines, above all a penalty order (section 3).
3. How an investigation can end
When the investigation is complete, the prosecutor either brings charges or drops the case (§ 170 StPO). In practice there are five main outcomes:
- Dropped for lack of evidence (§ 170(2) StPO). You are told only if you were questioned as a suspect, an arrest warrant was issued, you asked to be told, or there is a particular interest in telling you.
- Dropped as minor (§ 153 StPO): for a less serious offence (Vergehen) where the guilt would be minor and there is no public interest in prosecution.
- Dropped against a condition (§ 153a StPO): only with your consent, the prosecutor sets a condition, typically a payment to a charity or the state, or making good the damage, with a deadline of up to six months. Once you have met it, the act can no longer be prosecuted as a Vergehen. This is not a conviction.
- Penalty order (Strafbefehl): a conviction by post, without a hearing, for a less serious offence. It can impose a fine, a driving ban and, if you have a defence lawyer, a suspended prison sentence of up to one year (§ 407 StPO). You have two weeks from service to object; otherwise it becomes final like a judgment (§ 410 StPO). See our penalty order guide.
- Charges and a trial (§ 170(1) StPO), which can still end in acquittal, a dropped case or a conviction.
The second and third outcomes are, for less serious offences, also open after charges have been brought (§ 153(2), § 153a(2) StPO). Which outcome is realistic depends on the file and the offence, and that is the first thing a defence lawyer looks at.
4. Fines are set in daily rates
A criminal fine (Geldstrafe) has two numbers: how many daily rates (Tagessätze), from 5 to 360, and how much each one is, from €1 to €30,000 (§ 40 StGB). The number reflects how serious the offence is. The amount is based on your average net income per day. So the same offence costs a high earner more, while the number of daily rates, the figure that matters for your record and your permit, stays the same.
5. Your criminal record
Convictions by a German court are entered in the Federal Central Register (Bundeszentralregister) (§ 4 BZRG). A case dropped under section 3 is not a conviction. What employers and landlords usually see is the certificate of good conduct (Führungszeugnis), and it leaves some convictions out:
- A fine of up to 90 daily rates, or a prison sentence of up to three months, is not shown if there is no other sentence in the register (§ 32(2) no. 5 BZRG). This exception does not apply to certain sexual offences (§ 32(1) BZRG).
- Entries are deleted after fixed periods: five years for such a fine of up to 90 daily rates when no prison sentence is registered, and ten, fifteen or twenty years for heavier sentences (§ 46 BZRG).
- Once an entry is deleted, or due for deletion, the act and the conviction may no longer be held against you (§ 51(1) BZRG).
The 90-daily-rate line comes up again and again. It is often the difference between a conviction that stays largely private and one that doesn't. Our criminal record guide covers the certificate and deletion in detail.
6. Residence permit and citizenship
- Citizenship. For naturalisation, fines of up to 90 daily rates and suspended prison sentences of up to three months that have been remitted are generally disregarded; several convictions are added together (§ 12a(1) StAG). While you are under investigation, a citizenship decision is put on hold until the case ends (§ 12a(3) StAG). See the citizenship guide.
- Residence. A conviction can count against your stay. The law weighs the public interest in expulsion against your ties to Germany (§ 53 AufenthG). That interest counts as serious, for example, after a final prison sentence of at least six months for intentional offences, and as particularly serious from two years (§ 54 AufenthG); for some offences, such as violence, lower thresholds apply. Applications for a permit or for permanent residence also ask about convictions.
If you are not German, tell your defence lawyer about your residence status at the start. It changes what a "good" outcome is: a payment under § 153a or a fine below the thresholds can matter far more than the amount.
7. Who pays
If you are convicted, you pay the costs of the proceedings (§ 465 StPO), on top of your own lawyer. If you are acquitted, or the case is dropped after charges were brought, the state bears the costs and your necessary expenses (§ 467(1) StPO). That rule is about people who have been charged; when a case is dropped during the investigation, your own lawyer's fees usually stay with you. Ask about fees at the start: many defence lawyers agree a fee for the investigation stage.
8. When a lawyer can help
The most useful work in a criminal case often happens before any hearing. A defence lawyer can see the investigation file (§ 147 StPO), tell you whether a statement would help or hurt, ask the prosecutor to drop the case or to offer a § 153a condition, and object to a penalty order within the two weeks. If your residence status or a job depends on the outcome, it is worth involving one before you say anything to the police.
Have every letter with its envelope, the case number (Aktenzeichen), and your notes and messages ready. You can request an English-speaking criminal defence lawyer.
Sources checked on 17 October 2026. The linked provisions are the German statutory text; the explanations here are general information.