The German cover letter: DIN 5008 layout, subject line and closing

A German cover letter, the Anschreiben, is a formal letter on one page. Your details at the top, the employer’s below them, place and date on the right, then a subject line naming the job, a salutation, a few short paragraphs and “Mit freundlichen Grüßen” with your name. The layout most Germans learn for it comes from a standard, DIN 5008.

This is for anyone writing to an employer in Germany, in German or in English. What you say matters more than where it sits, and the cover letter that leads with evidence covers that. This post is the form around it, which a German reader notices at once. Austria is close; its public employment service, the AMS, gives much the same structure.

What is DIN 5008, and do you have to follow it?

DIN 5008 is the German standard for writing and laying out documents. DIN Media, the publisher of German standards, says it sets rules for letters, emails and applications, and that it is a recommendation, not a legal requirement. The current edition is from 2020.

Nobody will reject you for a millimetre. But the layout is so familiar that a letter which ignores it reads as foreign, and the Bundesagentur für Arbeit’s leaflet on applications lays out its model letter “nach DIN 5008”. The same leaflet and the AMS both keep the letter to one page.

What goes in the letter head?

The Bundesagentur’s guide to the Anschreiben says every letter starts with your contact details and the employer’s. Its leaflet puts them in this order, top to bottom:

1. 01
   Your details

   Top left: your first and last name, street and house number, postcode and town, then the phone number you can be reached on.

2. 02
   Place and date

   Top right, and today’s date: “Berlin, 31.10.2026” or “Berlin, 31. Oktober 2026”.

3. 03
   The employer

   The company’s full name exactly as the posting gives it, then the contact person, street or PO box, postcode and town. No “z. Hd.” before the name: the leaflet says it is no longer written.

4. 04
   The subject line

   Below the address, before the salutation. The next section is about what it says.

How do you write the subject line?

It says which job you are applying for, using the title the posting gives it: that is the Bundesagentur’s advice, and the AMS adds that it should be short. “Bewerbung als Projektmanagerin” is a whole subject line. If you are writing in English, “Application for Project Manager” does the same job.

The subject line is the job’s own title, not a sentence about it.

How do you open and close the letter?

The salutation names a person when you can: “Sehr geehrte Frau Dr. Schmidt,” with the title spelled as they use it. “Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,” is usual when you can’t find a name, though the Bundesagentur notes it always reads a little impersonal. Three things catch people writing German for the first time:

• A capital after the comma. After the salutation’s comma, leave a blank line and carry on in lower case, unless the first word is a noun, as the leaflet shows.
• “Hiermit bewerbe ich mich…” The Bundesagentur advises against opening with it: your first lines should make the reader interested.
• A salary nobody asked for. The leaflet says to name your salary expectation only when the posting asks for it, and to give your possible start date.

Separate the paragraphs with a blank line and end with a short sentence asking for an interview. Then a blank line, “Mit freundlichen Grüßen”, and your first and last name with your signature. On paper you sign by hand. The leaflet places the word “Anlagen” (enclosures) below the signature, without a colon and without listing each document.

What changes when you apply by email?

The letter stays the same; the paper doesn’t. The Bundesagentur suggests you scan your signature and add it to the file. For an email application it advises turning the documents into PDFs and combining them into one file, the letter first, then the CV; a portal usually asks for each document separately. The CV that follows has its own rules, in how to write a German CV.