German Address Format: How to Write a German Address Correctly

What is the correct German address format? A German address is written recipient-first with the street name before the house number and the 5-digit PLZ (postal code) before the city on the same line — for example: Herr Thomas Weber / Musterstraße 12 / 10115 Berlin. Both of those line orders are the reverse of US convention. If you are sending from the United States, add GERMANY as the final line in capitals so USPS and UPS route the parcel to the right country.

What Is the Correct Format for a German Address?

A correctly formatted German address is stacked one element per line, and the internal order of two of those lines is reversed from what US senders expect. Deutsche Post’s official addressing guidance gives this structure:

• Addressee’s name (with courtesy title where known)
• Company or department name (business mail only)
• Ortsteil / locality — only where a street name repeats within the same postal code area
• Street name followed by house number, or a Postfach (P.O. box) line
• PLZ (5-digit postal code) followed by city, on one line, separated by a single space

Two things trip up US senders immediately: the house number comes after the street name (Musterstraße 12, not “12 Musterstraße”), and the postal code comes before the city on that final line (10115 Berlin, not “Berlin 10115”). Deutsche Post’s spec is explicit that the postcode line should contain nothing but the code and the city — no commas, no “DE-” prefix, no extra text. When a US shipper prepares a label through a platform like ParcelPath’s Germany shipping page, that same order applies, with one addition covered below: the destination country on the final line.

What Are the Essential Components of a German Address?

Each line does a specific job in the delivery chain. Getting the last line right — PLZ before city, not after — matters more than any other single formatting choice.

Line	What it is	Example	Required?
Recipient	Person or business receiving the item	Herr Thomas Weber	Yes
Ortsteil	District/locality, only if the street name repeats within the PLZ area	Mitte	Only if needed
Street line	Street name + house number (never reversed), or Postfach + box number	Musterstraße 12	Yes
PLZ	5-digit Postleitzahl, placed before the city	10115	Yes
City	Delivery city, same line as PLZ	Berlin	Yes
Country	Destination country for international mail; omitted entirely on domestic mail	GERMANY	Yes (from abroad)

The single most common surprise for US senders is the PLZ-then-city line order, since it’s the mirror image of a US “City, ST ZIP” line. Deutsche Post’s addressing standard is explicit that the postcode and city sit on their own line, in that order, separated by exactly one space — the code already routes the item to the correct delivery office before a human even reads the city name.

How Does the German Postal Code (PLZ) System Work?

The Postleitzahl (PLZ) is the part that does the routing, and it has a strict internal grammar that differs from both UK and US postcodes:

• Always exactly 5 digits, unbroken — no letters, no space or hyphen inside the code itself (e.g. 10115, 80331, 52078).
• The PLZ sits before the city on the same line, separated by a single space — 10115 Berlin. This is the opposite of the UK/US convention of city (or town) first, code last, and it is the single fact most likely to trip up a US sender formatting a German label.
• The first digit is a broad zone (Postleitzone) and the first two digits together form a Postleitregion — Wikipedia’s entry on postal codes in Germany notes that zone 1 covers north-east Germany and region 10 covers inner-city Berlin. Unlike the old system, the code no longer tells you a city’s relative size by its number of trailing zeros.

The current 5-digit system is younger than many senders assume. West Germany had used a 4-digit code since 1962 and East Germany ran its own separate 4-digit system from 1965; after reunification, the two networks were briefly reconciled with “W” and “O” prefixes on the old codes before Deutsche Post rolled out a single unified 5-digit system nationwide on July 1, 1993. Every PLZ in use today dates from that reform, which is also why old pre-1993 codes you might find on an outdated mailing list are no longer valid.

The street-line order is the other reversal to remember: German addresses put the street name first and the house number second — Musterstraße 12, not “12 Musterstraße.” Str. is the accepted abbreviation for Straße (street) when space is tight. And because many German cities have multiple streets with the same name in different districts, an Ortsteil (locality/district) line — placed between the recipient name and the street line — is added whenever the PLZ area alone wouldn’t disambiguate the address.

How Do You Address a German Parcel From the United States?

Shipping into Germany from the US adds exactly one rule to everything above: the last line of the address must be the destination country, written in English capitals — GERMANY. USPS and UPS sort outbound international parcels by that country line first, before the PLZ is ever read, so omitting it is the fastest way to have a package held or returned. (On purely domestic German mail, by contrast, Deutsche Post’s own spec says the country name should be left off entirely — it’s an addition that only belongs on international shipments.)

Practical points for US-origin German shipments:

• Keep the street-then-number and PLZ-then-city orders intact. Don’t “Americanize” the address by flipping either line — Deutsche Post’s automated sorting expects the German order even on inbound international mail.
• Write umlauts correctly where you can (ä, ö, ü) or use the accepted substitutes (ae, oe, ue) and ß as “ss” if your label system can’t render the special characters — either is understood, but don’t drop the letter entirely.
• Include a working phone number and email in the label’s contact fields — German customs and last-mile couriers use them for duty/VAT contact and delivery notifications.
• Deutsche Post DHL is Germany’s national postal operator and reaches every PLZ in the country. ParcelPath issues discounted USPS and UPS labels for the Germany lane — we ship via USPS and UPS only, not DHL directly — and the Germany destination guide covers current transit windows and customs paperwork.

For the customs side of a German parcel — the CN22/CN23 declaration, commodity codes, and EU import VAT — see our international shipping hub, which walks through the documentation that keeps a parcel out of a customs hold.

What Are the Most Common German Address Mistakes to Avoid?

Almost every failed or delayed German delivery traces back to one of a short list of formatting errors:

• Putting the city before the PLZ (“Berlin 10115” instead of “10115 Berlin”). Deutsche Post’s sorting depends on the code coming first on that line.
• Reversing the street line (“12 Musterstraße” instead of “Musterstraße 12”). German addressing always puts the house number after the street name.
• Adding a comma or “DE-” prefix to the postcode line. Deutsche Post’s format calls for just the 5-digit code, a single space, then the city — no punctuation, no country prefix.
• Skipping the Ortsteil when the street name repeats. Many German cities have several streets with an identical name in different districts; the locality line resolves the ambiguity the PLZ alone can’t.
• Forgetting “GERMANY” on mail sent from abroad. Without the country line, a US carrier can’t route the parcel internationally — even though that same line has no place on domestic German mail.
• Mangling umlauts and ß. Dropping the dots on ä/ö/ü or silently deleting a ß instead of substituting “ss” can turn a street name into something the local delivery office can’t match.

How Do You Handle Postfach, Apartment Numbers, and Umlauts?

A few German-specific formatting cases come up often enough to call out on their own:

• Postfach (P.O. Box): replace the street line entirely with “Postfach” followed only by the box number — e.g. Postfach 1234. Deutsche Post’s spec is strict that no other text belongs on that line, and a Postfach address never carries a street or house number.
• Apartment or floor number: supplementary details such as a flat or unit number are appended to the street line after the house number, separated by a double slash — for example Musterstraße 12 // 3. OG (third floor) or // Whg. 7 (apartment 7) — kept on the same line, not a line of its own.
• Umlauts and ß: ä, ö, ü and ß are standard in German street and place names (e.g. Königstraße, Grünewaldstraße). Modern international mail systems handle them fine; if a label system is Latin-only, the accepted substitutes are ae/oe/ue for the umlauts and ss for ß — never simply drop the character, since that can produce a street name that no longer matches any real address.
• Straße abbreviation: Str. is an accepted, widely used abbreviation for Straße on both handwritten and printed labels, and doesn’t affect deliverability.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the PLZ go before or after the city in a German address?

Before. Deutsche Post’s addressing standard places the 5-digit PLZ first on the final line, followed by a single space and then the city — e.g. 10115 Berlin. This is the reverse of the US “City, State ZIP” order, and it’s the detail most likely to trip up a US-based sender.

Does the house number come before or after the street name in Germany?

After. German addresses write the street name first and the house number second — Musterstraße 12, not “12 Musterstraße.” This is also the reverse of standard US formatting, so it’s worth double-checking on any label built from a US-style form.

Do I add “Germany” when shipping from the US?

Yes — always, as the last line in English capitals. USPS and UPS sort outbound parcels by the destination country first, so a label without “GERMANY” can be held domestically or returned before it ever leaves the US. That same country line has no place on purely domestic German mail, where Deutsche Post’s own guidance says to leave it off.

When do I need to include an Ortsteil (locality) in a German address?

Only when the street name repeats more than once within the same postal code area — common in larger German cities that absorbed surrounding towns and villages over time. When needed, the Ortsteil goes on its own line, between the recipient’s name and the street line.

How old is Germany’s current 5-digit postal code system?

It dates to July 1, 1993. Before that, West Germany used a separate 4-digit system introduced in 1962 and East Germany ran its own 4-digit codes from 1965; the two were reconciled into a single unified 5-digit PLZ system as part of post-reunification infrastructure, and that’s the system still in use today.

Sources

• Deutsche Post — Briefumschlag richtig beschriften (official addressing guidance)
• Pingen Help Center — Address Requirements: Deutsche Post (Germany)
• Universal Postal Union — Germany postal addressing template
• Postal codes in Germany — structure and format

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Part of our Shipping to Germany guide. Related: International Shipping hub · UK Address Format.