DIN 5008 Cover Letter Format for German Applications

DIN 5008 is the German standard for business letters. You do not have to follow it in an application. In conservative sectors such as public administration, banking and industrial Mittelstand companies, a letter that follows it shows care, and readers who know the standard notice when a letter does not.

The key measurements

• Margins: 2.5 cm on the left, at least 2 cm on the right (2.5 cm is better), 4.5 cm at the top for the letterhead and at least 2.5 cm at the bottom.
• Font: a plain, readable typeface at 11 or 12 pt.
• Length: one page. A cover letter that runs onto a second page is too long, whatever the standard says.

The structure from top to bottom

1. Sender: name, address, phone and email.
2. Address block: the company, a named contact person and the address.
3. Date: right-aligned and current. Use the day the application actually goes out. An old date shows that the letter was reused.
4. Subject line: in bold and without the word “Betreff”, for example Bewerbung als Senior Controller, Kennziffer 2026-114.
5. Salutation: “Sehr geehrte Frau …” or “Sehr geehrter Herr …”. Finding out the contact person’s name is part of the work. “Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren” is the last resort.
6. Body: three to five paragraphs. Open with a link to the role, show what you offer with evidence, and end with the practical points: your start date, and your salary expectation if the ad asks for it.
7. Closing and signature: “Mit freundlichen Grüßen” with your signature below. In a digital letter, use a scanned signature or a clean script.
8. Enclosures: optional, for example “Anlagen: Lebenslauf, Zeugnisse”.

The most common mistakes

The mistakes seen most often are a missing or outdated date, no named contact person, the word “Betreff:” in front of the subject line, and justified text with poor hyphenation. Left-aligned text with a ragged right edge is the safe choice.

How Zusaga helps

Zusaga has two cover letter designs, and both follow DIN 5008. Anschreiben Deutschland is the recommended one. It adds a return-address line, a subject line with the reference number and a list of enclosures below the signature, and it uses the same typeface and date as the Lebenslauf Deutschland resume. Anschreiben DIN 5008 places the recipient in the DIN envelope window and puts the place and date on the right.

Zusaga writes the text for each job from your tailored resume. Before the letter is saved, it is checked against your resume, the job posting and the answers you gave. A figure or name that none of them contains is rewritten or removed.

Click Edit on the cover letter to change any part of it, from the salutation to the closing. The editor asks for the Hiring manager and the Company address until you have filled in both. Write the name with its form of address, for example Ms. Anna Schmidt, and the salutation of a German letter becomes “Sehr geehrte Frau Schmidt,”. Your own address at the top of the letter comes from your Application profile.

Cover letters are part of Zusaga Pro. If the ad asks for a salary, our guide to salary expectations in a cover letter shows what to write.