A letter from the police naming you as a Beschuldigter, a suspect, usually invites you to an interview or asks for a written statement. It reads like an obligation. For a suspect, a police interview is not one, and what you say at this stage is often what the rest of the case is built on.
1. Suspect or witness: check the letter
The letter says which role you have. Beschuldigter (sometimes Vorladung zur Beschuldigtenvernehmung) means the investigation is about you. Zeuge means you are being asked about what someone else did. The rules below are for suspects. Witnesses have fewer choices: they must appear and answer when the summons is issued on the prosecutor's instructions (§ 163 StPO), though they can refuse questions whose answers could incriminate themselves or a close relative.
A traffic Anhörungsbogen for a speeding or parking fine is a different, administrative procedure; see our guide to traffic fines.
2. You do not have to go to a police interview
The law obliges a suspect to appear when summoned by the prosecutor's office or a judge (§ 163a(3) StPO). There is no equivalent duty for a summons from the police. You can decline, and you do not have to give a reason. It is common for a defence lawyer to write to the police instead, saying that you will not attend and asking for the file.
Not going is not an admission, and it cannot be held against you. It does mean the investigation continues without your side for now; the time for your side comes once someone has read the file.
One thing is not optional: your personal details. Name, address, date of birth and nationality are separate from statements about the accusation, and refusing them can be an offence in itself.
3. The right to stay silent
At the start of any interview you must be told what you are accused of, that you are free to say nothing about it, and that you can speak to a lawyer of your choice at any time, including before the interview (§ 136 StPO, applied to police interviews by § 163a(4)).
Silence is a right, not a tactic that looks bad. What people get wrong is the middle ground: explaining "just the context", or answering "only the easy questions". Anything you say goes into the file. Partial statements are where the problems start, because the gaps can be read against you in a way complete silence cannot. The same goes for the written statement form: nothing obliges you to fill in the part about the facts.
Informal conversations count too. A chat with an officer at the door, or a message sent to the other side after the event, can end up as evidence.
4. The right to a lawyer
A suspect can have defence counsel at every stage of the proceedings (§ 137 StPO), and a defence lawyer may be present when the police interview you. If you want to speak to a lawyer before an interview, the police must give you information that helps you find one, including any emergency lawyer service.
In practice the order is usually: lawyer first, file second, statement last, if at all.
5. Seeing the file
Your lawyer can inspect the investigation file and the evidence (§ 147 StPO). Before the investigation is formally closed, parts can be withheld if showing them would endanger the investigation. Someone without a lawyer has a narrower right to see the file themselves.
This is why defence lawyers generally advise saying nothing until they have seen it. Only the file shows what the police actually know, who said what, and what a statement could add or contradict.
6. If your German is not good enough
A suspect who does not speak German has the right to an interpreter free of charge throughout the criminal proceedings, and in general to a written translation of key documents such as an indictment, a penalty order or a judgment that is not yet final (§ 187 GVG, applied to investigations by § 163a(5) StPO). Do not agree to an interview in German you only half follow; you can ask for an interpreter.
7. Court-appointed defence
In certain cases the law requires a defence lawyer, and the court appoints one if you have none: among others, a serious offence (Verbrechen), a trial expected before a higher court, being brought before a judge on an arrest warrant, or where the seriousness or complexity of the case calls for it (§ 140 StPO). You can apply for one, and you can name the lawyer you want.
"Appointed" does not mean "free". If you are convicted, the costs of the proceedings, including the appointed lawyer, are normally charged to you.
8. What to do next
- Check the role on the letter: Beschuldigter or Zeuge, and who sent it: police, prosecutor or court.
- Keep the letter and envelope, and anything else you have received, including a search or seizure record.
- Say nothing about the accusation for now: not to the police, not on the form, not to the other people involved.
- Watch the post for a Strafbefehl. Many cases end in a penalty order sent by letter, with two weeks to object; see our guide to the Strafbefehl.
- Talk to a defence lawyer before any statement. If you hold a residence permit or plan to naturalise, mention it: a conviction can matter there too (see our guide to a refused residence permit).