Calculating Notice Periods in Germany: How to Find the Last Day to Give Notice

Why a single day can cost you a whole month

Anyone giving notice wants to know when the contract ends. The answer depends on one date: the day the notice reaches the other party. If it arrives one day too late, an employment relationship can easily run two weeks or a month longer, and a lease a full month's rent longer. The good news: German notice periods follow fixed rules in the Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB), and they can be calculated precisely.

This guide explains the periods for employment contracts (§ 622 BGB) and residential leases (§ 573c BGB), shows the counting rules of §§ 187 and 188 BGB with examples and lists the typical mistakes. The notice period calculator gives you your personal result, including the public holidays of your German state.

The basic period: 4 weeks to the 15th or the end of a month

Every employment relationship starts with the basic notice period: four weeks to the fifteenth or to the end of a calendar month (§ 622(1) BGB). Two details matter. First, four weeks are exactly 28 days, not one month. Second, the employment may only end on two days a month: the 15th or the last day of the month.

The period starts on the day after the notice is received (§ 187(1) BGB) and ends 28 days later. That gives a simple rule: the last day for receipt is exactly 28 days before the desired end date.

If your notice for 31 December only arrives on 4 December, it is too late. The employment then ends on the next permitted date, 15 January. For employees this is the only statutory period, however long they have worked for the company.

Longer periods for employers based on length of service

If the employer gives notice, the period grows with the length of the employment (§ 622(2) BGB). From two years onwards, the 15th is no longer available, only the end of the month.

What counts is the length of service when the notice is received. Years before the employee's 25th birthday count in full. The former rule excluding them was struck down by the European Court of Justice in 2010 as age discrimination and has been deleted from the statute since 1 January 2019.

Example: an employee has worked for nine years and the employer wants the employment to end on 31 December 2026. The period is three months to the end of a month. Under § 188(2) BGB a period of months ends on the day of the last month that has the same number as the day of receipt. If notice is received on 30 September, the period expires on 30 December and the employment ends on 31 December. If it is received on 1 October, it only ends on 31 January.

Probation: 2 weeks to any day

During an agreed probation period of up to six months, the notice period is only two weeks (§ 622(3) BGB). Unlike the basic period, no specific end date is required: if notice is received on a Tuesday, the employment ends two weeks later on a Tuesday. It is sufficient for the notice to arrive on the last day of probation. Read more in notice period during probation.

Employment contracts and collective agreements often take precedence

Many employment contracts set their own periods, for example three months to the end of a quarter. Such clauses are valid if they are not shorter than the basic period for employees and the employer's period is not shorter than the statutory one. If the contractual period for the employer is shorter than the statutory scale, the statutory period applies. And employees may not be bound by a longer period than the employer (§ 622(6) BGB).

Contracts often state that the employer's extended periods also apply to the employee. After nine years you then also have to give three months' notice to the end of a month. Collective agreements may even set shorter periods (§ 622(4) BGB). In an individual contract, the basic period may only be undercut in exceptional cases (§ 622(5) BGB): for temporary staff during the first three months, and small businesses with no more than 20 employees may drop the fixed end dates, while the four-week length remains.

In the calculator you therefore choose between statutory, employment contract and collective agreement. For an employment contract, the calculator compares the agreed and the statutory period and uses the longer one.

Leases: 3 months with a grace period until the 3rd working day

For residential property § 573c BGB applies: notice must be given no later than the third working day of a calendar month, to the end of the month after next. For tenants that means just under three months. If notice is received by the 3rd working day of January, the lease ends on 31 March. For landlords the period extends to six months after five years and to nine months after eight years.

Working days are Monday to Saturday. Sundays and public holidays do not count. The Federal Court of Justice has confirmed that Saturday counts (judgment of 27 April 2005, VIII ZR 206/04). This is why your state matters: in January 2027, 1 January is a holiday, Saturday 2 January is the first working day and the 3rd working day is Tuesday 5 January. All the details are in terminating a lease in Germany.

Receipt is everything: sending is not enough

Notice only takes effect once it reaches the recipient (§ 130 BGB). That is the case when it enters their sphere so that they can normally take note of it. A letter in the letter box is received at the time when the box would customarily be emptied. A letter dropped in late in the evening is therefore often only received the next day.

Employment contracts and residential leases also require written form with a handwritten signature (§ 623 BGB, § 568 BGB). Notice by email, fax or messenger is invalid. If you send your notice by post, allow a few working days of buffer. For registered and ordinary mail the calculator deducts three working days and shows the latest date to send. How to prove receipt is explained in proving receipt of notice.

Weekends and holidays do not move the deadline

A common misconception is that if the last day is a Sunday, Monday is fine. That is not true for notice periods. § 193 BGB does move deadlines within which a declaration must be made to the next working day. The Federal Labour Court, however, does not apply it to notice periods because the recipient is meant to keep the full period (judgment of 5 March 1970, 2 AZR 112/69). If the latest day of receipt is a Sunday, you have to give notice earlier, ideally by Friday.

Leases are a little different. Because only working days count, the 3rd working day can never be a Sunday or holiday. If it falls on a Saturday, it is disputed whether § 193 BGB moves it to Monday. The Federal Court of Justice expressly left this open. The calculator uses the Saturday and shows the Monday as an alternative.

The five most common mistakes

1. Confusing four weeks with one month: if you want to leave on 31 December, you do not have until 30 November but until 3 December.

2. Counting the sending date instead of receipt: the postmark has no legal relevance.

3. Applying the employer's scale to employees: by law it only applies to notice given by the employer, unless the contract says otherwise.

4. Forgetting holidays for the 3rd working day: German Unity Day on Saturday 3 October 2026 moves the 3rd working day to Monday 5 October.

5. Hoping for a weekend extension: in employment law there is none.

What matters after giving notice

Employees must register as job seekers with the employment agency at least three months before the end, or within three days if the period is shorter (§ 38 SGB III). Otherwise unemployment benefit may be blocked for a while. Remaining holiday must be taken by the last day or paid out, and the holiday entitlement calculator shows your pro-rata days. If a severance payment is being negotiated, the severance calculator gives the rule of thumb and the net amount.

If both sides want to end the employment without a notice period, a termination agreement is an option. Its consequences are covered in termination agreement or notice.

Conclusion

Notice periods are not rocket science, but they do not forgive inaccuracy. Always count backwards from the desired end date, count from receipt and not from sending, and build in a buffer for weekends and postal times. The calculator does the calendar work for you. It is not legal advice, though: special protection against dismissal, fixed-term contracts or unclear clauses should be checked professionally if in doubt.