C/O Germany: How to Navigate the German Postal Service
This page covers how to send and receive mail using the postal service in Germany. From how to format a German address to pricing details for letters and parcels, explore the key info you need to navigate Germany’s mail system.
✉️ When living overseas, it is essential that you know how to reliably send and receive mail. Whether you are posting in your health insurance application documents or waiting for your residence permit card to arrive in your letterbox, there are few things more frustrating to your relocation and set up in Germany than failing to have important documents delivered.
Thankfully, Germany is home to Deutsche Post, a global titan when it comes to mail. With the delivery of approximately 61 million letters a day, Deutsche Post runs a pretty slick operation. Despite this, no postal service is flawless. So, to improve your chances of a smooth mail service, here are some key things to keep in mind when dealing with Germany’s postal service.
Germany address
📌 One of the most important factors for successfully sending and receiving mail in Germany is to know how to format a German address correctly. Fortunately, this is quite straightforward and should look as follows:
Line 1: Recipient name
Line 2: Street name and building number
Line 3: Post code and city
Line 4: Country
Below is how this should look when written on an envelope:
Mail sorting is largely automated in Germany so make sure that addresses are easily readable. It is also advised that you do not write addresses too close to the edge of the envelope (leave at least 40 mm from the top edge and 15 mm from the side edges).
Letterboxes in Germany
📬 If you are living in a city in Germany, you will most likely be living in an apartment. Although your apartment will have a street number (e.g. Friedrichstrasse 8), most apartments in Germany do not have an apartment number (e.g. Apt. 210).
Due to the rarity of apartment numbers in Germany, mail is generally delivered by name. Therefore, in order to successfully deliver your mail, the postal worker is entirely reliant on your name being on the letterbox at your address.
Therefore, as soon as you have registered at an address in Germany (Anmeldung), make sure that your landlord or property manager (Hausverwaltung) adds your name to the letterbox. Without this, there is a high chance your mail will not be delivered as your local postal worker may have no way to identify where you are located in your apartment block or which letterbox belongs to you.
C/O Germany
In the event that you are not able to have your name added to the letterbox where you are living in Germany, or there is a delay in having it added, you should provide details of the name that currently is on the letterbox when providing your address.
In short, you need to indicate to the postal worker that your mail is in the ‘care of’ someone else. To do this, simply add ‘c/o’ and then the name of the current person on the mailbox:
Post offices in Germany
🏤 When it comes to sending letters and packages in Germany, you have a number of options via Deutsche Post. These days, dedicated post offices are few and far between in Germany, but there are thousands of supermarkets, kiosks and DHL Paketshops where you can send mail from meaning the nearest location is often just around the corner. To identify locations that offer postal services, look for the yellow Deutsche Post logo on the outside of the shop, kiosk, etc.
Postboxes in Germany
As in most countries, there are postboxes placed at frequent intervals around all of Germany’s towns and cities. In Germany, these postboxes are yellow and often display the Deutsche Post logo.
In general, postboxes in Germany have separate slots for local post (usually the left-hand slot) and other/international post (usually the right-hand slot). The post box will also have information about the emptying times on it.
Before using a postbox in Germany, you will of course need to purchase postage stamps. You can do this at any post office, supermarket, shop or kiosk showing the Deutsche Post logo. Alternatively, you can purchase and print your stamps via the Deutsche Post online shop.
Cost of sending mail in Germany
💰 The cost of sending letters and packages in Germany is determined by:
The dimensions of the item
The weight of the item
The destination of the item
Below is the official Deutsche Post pricing for sending letters and postcards both domestically and internationally (as of February 2021):
Deutsche Post prices - domestic letters and postcards.
Deutsche Post prices - international letters and postcards.
When it comes to sending packages in Germany, this is actually run through DHL, which is a division of Deutsche Post. DHL provide the following pricing information for packages and parcels:
DHL prices - domestic shipping costs for packages and parcels
DHL prices - international shipping costs for packages and parcels being sent within the EU
DHL prices - approximate international shipping costs for packages and parcels being sent worldwide
⭐ We hope you have found this page useful for understanding the postal service in Germany. If you would like further information about living in Germany, explore our other blog posts or free relocation resources. If you are moving to Berlin specifically, then check out our relocation guides on our homepage.