The German cover letter (Anschreiben)
Last updated 3 September 2026
In a lot of countries the cover letter has quietly become optional — a formality nobody reads. In Germany it hasn't. The Anschreiben is often the document that decides whether your CV gets read at all, and it is where German applications differ most from what international applicants are used to.
Why it matters more here
Because the German CV deliberately contains no argument. There is no personal statement, no summary, no "why me" section — the Lebenslauf is a record, not a pitch. Everything persuasive has to happen in the Anschreiben. If you carry over the habit of treating it as a polite cover note, you are sending an application with the argument missing.
The first sentence
A cover letter is rarely read start to finish. It is skimmed: first sentence, last sentence, the rest only if the first two earned it. That makes the opening the most valuable line in the document — and it is routinely thrown away, in German as much as in English:
Hiermit bewerbe ich mich auf die von Ihnen ausgeschriebene Stelle als Projektmanagerin …
(I hereby apply for the position of Project Manager advertised by you …)
This says nothing the reader doesn't know. That you're applying follows from the fact that they received it; which role is in the subject line. The first line is spent before anything has been said.
Better openings carry information — most reliably the point where the ad's most important requirement and your matching experience meet:
Sie suchen jemanden, der die Einführung eines neuen Warenwirtschaftssystems begleitet. Genau das habe ich in den letzten zwei Jahren bei einem Handelsunternehmen mit 60 Mitarbeitenden gemacht — von der Auswahl bis zur Schulung der Teams.
(You're looking for someone to lead the rollout of a new ERP system. That is exactly what I did over the past two years at a retail company of 60 — from selection through to training the teams.)
It works because it makes a checkable claim and shows the ad was actually read. Neither can be produced by a template.
Structure
One page. Four paragraphs are almost always enough:
- The hook. The most important requirement and your connection to it, as above.
- The evidence. One or two concrete examples supporting the hook. Don't repeat the CV bullet list — tell one story: the situation, what you did, what came of it.
- Why this employer. This is where research separates itself from boilerplate, and where its absence is most obvious.
- The close. Availability, salary expectation if the ad asked for one, and a plain sentence about meeting.
Salary expectations
German ads often ask for a Gehaltsvorstellung, and unlike in some countries it's expected that you answer. Give an annual gross figure — "Meine Gehaltsvorstellung liegt bei 62.000 € brutto jährlich" — or a narrow range. Ignoring the question reads as evasive.
The closing line
"Über eine Einladung zu einem persönlichen Gespräch freue ich mich sehr" is unremarkable and perfectly fine. Avoid the conditional version — "würde ich mich freuen" — which makes it sound as though you're not sure it should happen.
Form: the conventions that give you away
- Salutation. "Sehr geehrte Frau Kessler," if a contact is named; "Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren," if not. Worth checking the company website before defaulting to the latter — a named person is a small signal of effort. Note the comma, and that the next line starts lowercase in German.
- Sign-off. "Mit freundlichen Grüßen" followed by your name. "Liebe Grüße" is for friends.
- Subject line without the word "Betreff". Just the role and, if there is one, the reference number.
- Formal "Sie", always — unless the ad itself uses "du" throughout, which some tech and startup employers now do. Following their lead is correct in that case.
When you don't meet a requirement
Almost nobody meets a German job ad in full; they tend to be wish lists. Two responses work badly: hiding the gap and hoping, or apologising for it at length.
Better is one short factual sentence that names the gap and puts the nearest thing beside it: "Mit Ihrer Branchensoftware habe ich noch nicht gearbeitet; ein vergleichbares System habe ich mir in den ersten Wochen meiner letzten Stelle selbst erschlossen." — "I haven't worked with your industry software; I taught myself a comparable system in the first weeks of my last role." It defuses the gap without claiming anything.
This applies to German language level too. If the ad asks for C1 and you're at B2, saying so with what you're doing about it is far stronger than leaving the reader to guess — because the guess will be "none".
What to leave out
- "Wie Sie meinem Lebenslauf entnehmen können …" — if it's in the CV, leave it there.
- Adjective lists. "Teamfähig, belastbar, motiviert" is claimed by everyone. A situation that required resilience demonstrates it.
- Thanking in advance. Well meant, but it turns an application into a request for a favour.
- Retelling the CV. If both documents say the same thing, one is redundant — and it isn't the CV.
Should you write it in German or English?
Follow the ad. If the ad is in German, write in German, even if your German is imperfect — applying in English to a German-language ad reads as not having engaged with the role. If the ad is in English, which is common at international employers in Berlin, Munich and Hamburg, write in English.
And be honest with yourself about what applying in German commits you to: the interview will very likely be in German as well.
Where gupp helps: it breaks the ad into individual requirements and weighs them, so you know what the first sentence should open with — and where a gap needs naming rather than papering over. The documents come out in the language of the ad. Try it for free.