German law fixes minimum notice periods that grow with your length of service — and the employer cannot shorten them, even with a signed contract clause. Even where a dismissal is ultimately valid, you are entitled to full salary through the end of the correct statutory notice period — and in practice, employers frequently get the notice date wrong, which typically means additional months of pay. Understanding the ladder under § 622 BGB is the first step in valuing any dismissal, because every settlement negotiation starts from the question: how long does the employer have to keep paying anyway?
The statutory ladder under § 622 BGB
The basic rule (§ 622(1) BGB): an employment relationship can be terminated with four weeks’ notice to the 15th or to the end of a calendar month.
For dismissals by the employer, the notice period extends with tenure (§ 622(2) BGB). After the employment has existed for:
- 2 years: 1 month, to the end of a calendar month
- 5 years: 2 months, to the end of a calendar month
- 8 years: 3 months, to the end of a calendar month
- 10 years: 4 months, to the end of a calendar month
- 12 years: 5 months, to the end of a calendar month
- 15 years: 6 months, to the end of a calendar month
- 20 years: 7 months, to the end of a calendar month
Two details matter in practice. First, the extended periods apply only to dismissals by the employer — if you resign, the four-week baseline applies unless your contract says otherwise. Second, all years of service count, including years before age 25 (the old exclusion in § 622(2) sentence 2 BGB was held incompatible with EU law and is no longer applied).
How the dates actually work
The phrase “to the 15th or to the end of a calendar month” trips up many international employees. It means the employment can only end on one of those dates — the notice itself can be delivered any day, but the clock must leave at least the full statutory period before the next permissible end date.
Example 1: baseline four weeks
Notice received on 3 June, tenure 18 months. Four weeks (28 days) from 3 June is 1 July. The next permissible end date is therefore 15 July. Had notice arrived on 18 June, the earliest end date would be 31 July.
Example 2: extended period
Notice received on 20 March, tenure 11 years. The statutory period is four months to month-end. Four months from 20 March runs to 20 July, so the employment can end no earlier than 31 July.
When does notice count as “received”?
The period starts when the written notice reaches your sphere of control (Zugang) — typically when the letter lands in your mailbox at a time when checking it could be expected, not when you actually read it. A notice dropped in your letterbox at 11 p.m. on 31 May is generally treated as received on 1 June — which can shift the end date by a full month.
Probation, contracts and collective agreements
Probationary period: two weeks
During an agreed probationary period of up to six months, either side may terminate with just two weeks’ notice, to any day (§ 622(3) BGB). No 15th-or-month-end anchoring applies. The separate question of whether dismissal protection applies at all during the first six months is covered in our article on probation dismissal.
Contractual extensions are allowed — shortening is not
Your employment contract may provide longer notice periods than the statute, and for senior roles it often does (three or six months to quarter-end is common). Shortening below the statutory minimums by individual contract is generally not permitted, with narrow exceptions: temporary help engaged for less than three months, and small businesses with no more than 20 employees may agree four weeks’ notice without a fixed end date (§ 622(5) BGB). Collective agreements (Tarifverträge) can deviate in both directions (§ 622(4) BGB) — always check whether one applies to your employment.
Your notice can never be longer than the employer’s
§ 622(6) BGB prohibits agreeing a longer notice period for the employee’s resignation than for the employer’s dismissal. A clause that lets the employer terminate faster than you is invalid; in practice, courts typically apply the longer period to both sides. If you want to leave and your contract seems to lock you in longer than it locks in the employer, have the clause checked — it may not bind you.
Where contract and statute diverge, the rule of thumb is: the provision more favourable to you applies. A contract clause fixing “four weeks to month-end” does not override the five-month statutory period you have earned after 12 years of service.
Wrong notice date: conversion, not invalidity
A very common employer error: dismissing a 13-year employee “with effect from 30 June” when the statutory five-month period actually runs to 30 September. Courts do not usually treat this as making the dismissal void. Instead, the notice is typically interpreted or converted into a dismissal effective at the earliest legally permissible date — here, 30 September. The practical consequence: three additional months of full salary, holiday accrual and pension contributions.
But there is a trap. Whether the wrong date can simply be corrected by interpretation, or whether it must be attacked in court, depends on the wording of the notice — and the BAG has held that in certain constellations the too-short notice period must be challenged within the three-week window of § 4 KSchG, or the wrong date becomes binding. The safe course is always the same: treat a dismissal with any date defect exactly like any other dismissal and file a Kündigungsschutzklage within 21 days.
Notice period and garden leave
Many employers release the employee from work duties (Freistellung) for the duration of the notice period. This does not shorten the notice period: salary, bonus accrual, holiday entitlement and company benefits typically continue until the correct end date. Whether the employer may unilaterally impose garden leave, whether outstanding holiday is offset against it, and whether you may take up a new job during the release are separate questions — but the notice-period arithmetic stays the same. A longer statutory period discovered after the fact converts directly into longer paid garden leave.
Worked example
Software engineer in Frankfurt, gross salary €6,800 per month, employed since April 2013 — just over 13 years of service. On 10 June the employer hands over an ordinary operational dismissal “effective 31 August”, citing the contract’s clause of “three months to month-end”.
The statutory ladder overrides the contract here: after 12 years of service, § 622(2) BGB grants five months to month-end. Notice received 10 June plus five months runs to 10 November, so the earliest permissible end date is 30 November — three months later than the employer’s stated date.
We file a Kündigungsschutzklage within the 21-day window, challenging both the dismissal itself and the end date. At the Gütetermin the employer concedes the date error. Outcome: employment end corrected to 30 November (three extra months × €6,800 = €20,400 additional gross salary, paid as garden leave), plus a negotiated severance of 0.75 monthly salaries per year of service (~€66,300), plus a qualified reference. Without the correct notice-period analysis, roughly €20,000 of that package would simply have been missed.
Frequently asked questions
Does my notice period start when the letter is dated or when I receive it?
When you receive it (Zugang). The date printed on the letter is irrelevant. If the employer post-dates or the letter arrives late, the whole calculation shifts — sometimes by a full month. Keep the envelope and note the delivery date.
My contract says four weeks, but I have worked here for nine years. Which applies?
The statutory three-month period under § 622(2) BGB. The contract cannot undercut the statutory minimums for employer-side dismissal. The more favourable provision applies to you.
Can the employer pay me off instead of honouring the notice period?
Not unilaterally. Unlike some jurisdictions, German law has no general “payment in lieu of notice”. The employment continues to the correct end date, typically as paid garden leave, unless you agree otherwise — for instance in a settlement that trades an earlier exit for a higher severance (often via a so-called sprinter clause).
Do the extended periods apply if I resign?
No. The extensions in § 622(2) BGB apply only to employer dismissals. If you resign, the four-week baseline applies unless your contract provides a longer period that validly binds both sides.
What about extraordinary (fristlose) dismissal — is there any notice period?
No — an extraordinary dismissal for cause ends the employment immediately, which is exactly why the legal bar for it is so high. See our overview of ordinary vs. extraordinary dismissal; immediate dismissals are reversed or converted into severance settlements at a high rate in practice.
Is severance owed on top of the notice period?
There is no automatic statutory severance in Germany, but notice-period pay and severance are cumulative in negotiations: the longer the employer must pay you anyway, the more leverage you have. Use our severance calculator for a first estimate.