If you resign from a permanent job in Germany, the legal minimum notice is four weeks, ending on the 15th or the last day of a month. Many contracts and collective agreements set longer periods, often three months, and those bind you too, as long as yours is not longer than your employer's. The resignation only counts on signed paper that has reached your employer.
1. Which notice period applies to you
Look for the period in this order: your employment contract, then any collective agreement (Tarifvertrag) that applies to your job, then the law.
- The legal minimum. An employee can give notice of four weeks to the 15th or to the end of a calendar month (§ 622(1) BGB).
- The longer periods are the employer's. The law's periods that grow with length of service, from one month after two years up to seven months after twenty, apply only when the employer gives notice (§ 622(2) BGB). By law alone, your own notice stays at four weeks however long you have worked there.
- Your contract can make it longer. Longer periods can be agreed in the contract (§ 622(5) BGB), and many contracts say that the extended periods, or a fixed period such as three months to the end of a month, apply to both sides. The limit: the period for your resignation may not be longer than the one for your employer's notice (§ 622(6) BGB).
- Shorter only in narrow cases. A contract can set less than four weeks only for temporary help in the first three months, or in a business with usually no more than 20 employees, and even there not under four weeks (§ 622(5) BGB). A collective agreement may set different periods either way (§ 622(4) BGB).
- Probation. During an agreed probation period (Probezeit) of at most six months, either side can give two weeks' notice, on any day (§ 622(3) BGB). The probation guide covers this from the employer's side.
- Fixed-term contracts. A fixed-term job (befristet) can only be ended early with notice if the contract or an applicable collective agreement allows it (§ 15(4) TzBfG). Otherwise it ends on its agreed date. A contract for life or for more than five years can be ended by the employee after five years, with six months' notice (§ 15(5) TzBfG).
2. How to count it
The period runs from the day your resignation reaches your employer, not the day you write or post it (§ 130(1) BGB). The day it arrives is not counted (§ 187(1) BGB), and a period of weeks ends on the same weekday as the day of arrival (§ 188(2) BGB).
Example with the legal minimum: to leave on Monday 30 November 2026, the letter has to reach your employer by Monday 2 November. If it arrives on 3 November, four weeks end on 1 December, which is not the 15th or the end of a month, so the job runs on to 15 December.
If your period is "three months to the end of the month", the letter has to arrive before the last three calendar months begin. A letter that arrives a day late usually moves your leaving date by a whole month (or to the next 15th, under the legal minimum). Give notice a few days early rather than on the last day.
3. How to resign so it counts
- On paper, signed by hand. A resignation (Kündigung) must be in writing; electronic form is excluded (§ 623 BGB). An email, a scanned PDF, a chat message or saying it in a meeting does not end the job.
- No reason needed. For ordinary notice you don't have to give a reason, and the employer doesn't have to accept or confirm the resignation for it to take effect.
- Say when you want to leave. Name the date, or write "at the next possible date" (zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt), which covers a miscalculated date.
- Prove it arrived. Hand it over in person and ask for a dated signature on your copy, or have it delivered with a witness who has read the letter. The burden of showing when it arrived is on you.
- It can't simply be taken back. Once it has reached the employer, a resignation can only be withdrawn if the employer agrees.
4. Leaving sooner
- By agreement. You and your employer can agree an earlier end date at any time. That is a termination agreement (Aufhebungsvertrag); it also has to be on signed paper (§ 623 BGB) and affects unemployment benefit (see the termination agreement guide).
- Without notice, for an important reason. Either side may end the job immediately when continuing until the end of the notice period cannot reasonably be expected, weighing all the circumstances (§ 626(1) BGB). This must be done within two weeks of learning the facts it rests on (§ 626(2) BGB). Whether a reason is strong enough is decided case by case, so it is a step to take advice on first.
- Just stopping work before the notice period ends is a breach of contract. The employer can then claim damages, and many contracts contain a contractual penalty (Vertragsstrafe) for exactly this.
5. During the notice period
You are still employed until the last day, with the same duties and the same pay. Your employer may release you from work (Freistellung, sometimes called garden leave); you are still employed and paid while released, but ask whether outstanding holiday is being counted against the release, and get the release in writing.
Your contract still binds you while it lasts. For commercial employees the law expressly bars competing with the employer during the employment (§ 60(1) HGB), so check before you start anything for a new employer in the same line of business. A ban on competing after you leave is a separate matter: it only exists if your contract contains one.
6. Holiday, final pay and your reference
- Holiday in the year you leave. If you leave in the first half of the year (by 30 June), or before you have worked six months, you are entitled to one twelfth of the annual leave for each full month worked (§ 5(1) BUrlG). This proportional rule does not apply when you leave in the second half of the year after six months' service; how extra contractual days are treated then depends on your contract or collective agreement.
- Leave you can't take is paid out. Holiday that can no longer be taken because the job ends must be paid in money (§ 7(4) BUrlG). Your employer must also give you a certificate of the leave taken or paid out that year, for your next employer (§ 6(2) BUrlG).
- Final pay. Pay runs to the last day of the notice period. Check the final payslip for overtime, bonuses and paid-out leave, and look in your contract for a deadline to claim money (Ausschlussfrist), which can be short.
- Reference. You are entitled to a written reference; on request it covers your performance and conduct (§ 109 GewO). The work reference guide explains how to read the grade.
7. Unemployment benefit after resigning
If you resign without a new job to go to, plan for this:
- Blocking period (Sperrzeit). If you end the job yourself without an important reason and become unemployed as a result, unemployment benefit is suspended for a blocking period (§ 159(1) SGB III), normally twelve weeks (§ 159(3) SGB III). It can also shorten the total time you can draw benefit (§ 148(1) no. 4 SGB III). Whether a reason counts as important is decided by the Agentur für Arbeit; if it rules against you, see the benefits decision guide.
- Register as a job-seeker in time. You must register with the Agentur für Arbeit at least three months before the job ends, or within three days of knowing the end date if it is less than three months away (§ 38(1) SGB III). This applies after a resignation too.
- Employment certificate. Your employer must confirm the facts the Agentur needs, including why the job ended (§ 312(1) SGB III).
8. If your residence permit depends on the job
If your permit was issued for this job, resigning can affect it. Check your permit's conditions, and ask the immigration authority (Ausländerbehörde) or a lawyer what applies to a change of employer, before you hand in the letter. The residence permit guide covers decisions by the immigration authority and their deadlines.
9. When a lawyer can help
An employment lawyer can read your contract and any collective agreement for the period that really applies, check whether a long period or a contractual penalty is valid, advise on leaving early or without notice, and negotiate an earlier end date or a release from work. In the first instance at the labour court each side pays its own lawyer, whoever wins (§ 12a ArbGG), so ask about fees at the start.
Have your contract, any collective agreement or company rules, your last payslips and your holiday balance ready. You can request an English-speaking employment lawyer.
Sources checked on 18 October 2026. The linked provisions are the German statutory text; the explanations here are general information.