German CV Format (Lebenslauf): Rules and Full Sample

A German CV (Lebenslauf) is a tabular, reverse-chronological CV with dates in a left column, your contact details at the top, and place, date and signature at the end. A photo, date of birth and nationality are customary but voluntary: German law lets you leave them out. Write it in German unless the job ad is in English.

That last point surprises people who learned the "German CVs must have a photo" rule from older guides. The Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) now tells applicants that employers may no longer require application photos, although they are still common. This guide shows what German recruiters actually expect in 2026, the German words for every section, and a complete sample Lebenslauf you can adapt.

German CV at a Glance

The two Bundesagentur für Arbeit booklets linked above are the closest thing Germany has to an official CV standard. They are written for jobseekers, they are free, and they are where most of the rules in this guide come from.

What the Law Says About Photos and Personal Details

Germany's General Equal Treatment Act, the Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (AGG), protects applicants from discrimination because of race or ethnic origin, sex, religion or belief, disability, age and sexual identity. Because a photo, a birth date and marital status can reveal several of those, employers cannot demand them. Job ads that say "AGG-konform" or ask for an "anonymisierte Bewerbung" are telling you to leave them off.

Custom moves more slowly than law. The Bundesagentur's own guide says a photo is "freiwillig, aber weiterhin üblich": voluntary, but still usual. Its adult jobseeker booklet goes further on personal details and lists date and place of birth, nationality, marital status and children, parents and religion under "not mandatory, when in doubt rather leave out."

So the practical rule for 2026:

• Traditional employers (Mittelstand firms, public sector, banks, law firms): a good photo and your date of birth are still normal and do no harm.
• International companies, startups and English-language ads: leave the photo and birth date off unless the ad asks for them.
• Any employer: never include religion, political affiliation, your parents' names or jobs, or your primary school. The Bundesagentur lists all of these on its "Streichliste" (cut list).

Nationality and work permit

Nationality is the one personal detail worth keeping if it answers a hiring question. If you are an EU citizen, "Staatsangehörigkeit: irisch" tells the employer you need no visa. If you hold a German residence title, a line such as "Aufenthaltstitel: Blaue Karte EU" does the same job. If you will need sponsorship, say so in the cover letter rather than the CV.

The Bewerbungsfoto: If You Include One

If you decide on a photo, the Bundesagentur's guidance is specific:

• Size: about 4 × 6 cm to 4 × 8 cm on the CV; up to 9 × 13 cm on a cover page (Deckblatt).
• Taken by a photographer, with a calm, neutral background and clean, appropriate clothing (shirt, polo or blouse).
• Recent: get a new one if yours is more than a year old or your appearance has changed (new glasses, beard, hair color).
• No selfies, holiday photos or heavily cropped images.
• No AI-generated makeovers. The guide warns that recruiters often spot AI-edited phone photos and react skeptically.
• Placement: top right of the first page, embedded in the text rather than floating over it, so applicant tracking software can still read the page.

All of those points come from the Bewerbungskompass. Its summary line is the best advice on the subject: "Lieber kein Foto, als ein schlechtes Foto." No photo is better than a bad photo.

Dress for the job you want rather than one level above it. A suit and tie for a bank, a blazer or smart shirt for an office role, a clean collared shirt for a technical role. Look at the camera and smile slightly.

German CV Sections and Their German Headings

Use German headings when you write in German. The table also helps if a recruiter sends you German feedback.

The Bundesagentur recommends the Kurzprofil at the top, written without "ich": "Zuverlässiger Lagerhelfer mit Erfahrung im Wareneingang und Kommissionieren" rather than "Ich bin ein zuverlässiger Lagerhelfer". It also asks you to describe skill levels in words, not stars or bars: "Englisch, verhandlungssicher", not five filled circles.

Put your contact details in the body of the page, not in the document header. The Bewerbungskompass points out that applicant tracking systems often skip header areas, which is also why it advises against nested tables and decorative graphics.

Dates and Gaps: Less Strict Than You Heard

German CVs list every period with month and year: "03/2021 – 08/2024", or "seit 09/2024" for a current job. Years alone look vague and invite questions.

The old rule that every single month must be accounted for has softened. The Bundesagentur says pauses of two or three months between jobs usually need no explanation, and that a CV should be honest rather than perfect. Longer gaps get one short, factual line. These German phrasings are standard:

Education and Grades

List your highest qualification first, with the institution, city, dates and, if it helps you, the final grade (Abschlussnote). Experienced candidates can reduce school education to one line, for example "Abitur, Gymnasium München-Nord, 2012".

German grades run from 1.0 (sehr gut, the best) to 4.0 (ausreichend, the lowest pass); 5.0 is a fail. A foreign grade written as "GPA 3.6/4.0" means little to a German recruiter. Two ways to make it readable:

1. State the scale: "GPA 3.6 (scale 4.0 best, 1.0 lowest pass)". Honest and immediately clear.
2. Add the German equivalent your university or a German admissions office gave you. German universities commonly convert foreign grades with the "modified Bavarian formula": German grade = 1 + 3 × (best possible grade − your grade) ÷ (best possible grade − lowest passing grade). With a 3.6 on a 4.0 scale where 1.0 is the lowest pass, that gives 1 + 3 × 0.4 ÷ 3.0 = 1.4. Only print a converted grade if an institution produced it.

For degrees from outside Germany, employers often look the institution up in anabin, the database the education ministers' conference (KMK) maintains for foreign qualifications. If anabin lists your university as a recognized institution (status "H+") and your degree type as equivalent ("entspricht"), say so in one line: "Bachelor of Science, University of Lagos (anabin: H+)". For regulated professions such as medicine, nursing, law or teaching you will need formal recognition (Anerkennung) before you can work in the profession.

Language Skills: Use the CEFR Levels

German employers read language skills on the six-level Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), A1 to C2. Pair the level with the German word recruiters use:

Be exact. "Deutsch: B1 (Goethe-Zertifikat, 2025)" is more credible than "Deutsch: gut", and overstating your German is the fastest way to lose an interview that is held in German.

German or English? Writing for International Employers

Write in English when the job ad is in English, the company names English as its working language, or you are applying to an international team in Berlin, Munich or Hamburg. Write in German when the ad is in German, the role involves German-speaking customers, or the employer is a traditional German firm. If you are unsure, follow the language of the ad.

An English CV for a German employer is still a German CV in structure: tabular, month/year dates, reverse order, a short profile, CEFR language levels. What changes is the personal detail: English-language ads at international firms usually expect no photo and no birth date.

A bilingual approach works when your German is around B1 or B2: German section headings with English content, plus a clear German language level. It shows you know the convention without pretending to a fluency you don't have.

Sample Lebenslauf (German)

Here is a complete German CV for a fictional marketing manager applying to a traditional German employer. Copy the structure, replace every line with your own details.

Julia Becker
Schillerstraße 45, 10627 Berlin
+49 151 23456789 | julia.becker@email.de | linkedin.com/in/juliabecker

PERSÖNLICHE DATEN
Geburtsdatum:        14.06.1991 in Hamburg
Staatsangehörigkeit: deutsch

KURZPROFIL
Marketing Managerin mit acht Jahren Erfahrung im B2B-Softwarevertrieb.
Schwerpunkt auf Content-Strategie, Marketing Automation und der
Zusammenarbeit mit dem Vertrieb. Erfahrung in der Führung eines
vierköpfigen Teams.

BERUFSERFAHRUNG
seit 04/2022         Marketing Managerin
                     Softwarehaus Nord GmbH, Berlin
                     • Verantwortung für das Marketingbudget und die
                       Kampagnenplanung für den DACH-Raum
                     • Aufbau eines Lead-Nurturing-Programms in HubSpot
                     • Führung von vier Mitarbeitenden

08/2018 – 03/2022    Senior Marketing Specialist
                     Cloudwerk AG, Hamburg
                     • Planung und Umsetzung von Webinaren und Fachartikeln
                     • Einführung eines monatlichen Reportings für den Vertrieb

10/2017 – 07/2018    Arbeitsuchend, Sprachkurs Englisch (C1)

WEITERBILDUNG
03/2024              HubSpot Marketing Hub Software Certification

AUSBILDUNG
10/2012 – 09/2017    Master of Arts, Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft
                     Universität Hamburg, Abschlussnote: 1,7

KENNTNISSE
Sprachen:            Deutsch (Muttersprache), Englisch (C1, verhandlungssicher),
                     Spanisch (A2, Grundkenntnisse)
IT:                  HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Analytics 4, MS Office
Führerschein:        Klasse B

Berlin, 06.10.2026
[Unterschrift]
Julia Becker

Notes on the sample:

• Personal details are minimal. Birth date and nationality are there because this applicant is targeting a traditional employer; marital status, religion and parents are not.
• The gap is named in one line ("Arbeitsuchend, Sprachkurs Englisch") instead of being hidden.
• The grade appears because it is good. A weaker grade can simply be left out.
• For an international firm, drop the "Persönliche Daten" block, write the content in English and keep everything else.

The Rest of the Application (Bewerbung)

A German application traditionally bundled a cover letter (Anschreiben), the CV and certificates (Zeugnisse). That bundle has slimmed down:

• Cover letter only if asked. The Bundesagentur notes that many companies now ask only for the CV. When an Anschreiben is requested, keep it to one page and skip the stock opening "Hiermit bewerbe ich mich". Our cover letter guide covers the structure.
• Fewer certificates. Send your most recent employer reference (Arbeitszeugnis) and perhaps one more strong one, plus your degree certificate. School reports matter only for early-career applicants.
• One file. Combine everything into a single PDF; the Bundesagentur suggests a maximum of 5 MB unless the employer says otherwise, and about 10 pages in total.
• File name: Bewerbung_Vorname_Nachname.pdf or Lebenslauf_Vorname_Nachname.pdf.

An optional cover page (Deckblatt) with your name, the job title and a larger photo is still used in some industries, but it adds a page and is never required.

Common Mistakes on German CVs

1. Sending a one-page US resume with no dates column. German recruiters expect the tabular layout and month/year dates.
2. Adding a casual or AI-edited photo. A bad photo hurts more than none.
3. Listing religion, parents or primary school. All three are on the Bundesagentur's cut list.
4. Vague language levels. Use CEFR levels, ideally with the certificate behind them.
5. Unconverted grades. "3.6" with no scale reads as a poor German grade.
6. Putting contact details in the header area, where parsing software may not read them.
7. Forgetting place, date and signature on a German-language CV for a traditional employer. A scanned signature is fine for online applications.

Build It in ResumeFast

You can build this format in the ResumeFast resume builder: set the resume language to German so section headings print in German, add a photo, date of birth and nationality in Personal info only when you want them, and keep the paper size on A4. Building and editing is free, and your first PDF or Word download is free too. Plain text downloads are always free; after your first file, PDF and Word downloads are part of Pro at $6.95 a month, billed monthly with no trial.

Before you send it, paste the job ad into the free keyword matcher to check that your CV uses the same terms as the ad, in the same language.

Related Guides

• Comparing several countries? The international CV guide has a country-by-country table and links to every country guide.
• Applying to an EU institution rather than a company? Read the Europass CV guide first.
• Coming from the UK? The UK CV guide shows what changes between a British CV and a Lebenslauf.