German employment law distinguishes between two kinds of dismissal: the ordentliche Kündigung (ordinary dismissal), which respects a notice period, and the außerordentliche Kündigung (extraordinary dismissal, also called fristlose Kündigung), which ends the employment immediately.
Ordinary dismissal
An ordinary dismissal terminates the employment at the end of the applicable notice period. The minimum notice period for the employer is set in § 622 BGB and lengthens with your years of service — from four weeks (in the first two years) up to seven months (after twenty years). Your contract or collective agreement may grant you a longer period, in which case the longer period applies.
If the Kündigungsschutzgesetz applies (more than six months tenure, employer with more than ten staff), the ordinary dismissal must additionally be socially justified under one of three headings:
- Operational reasons (betriebsbedingt) — the role has been eliminated and there is no other comparable position.
- Personal reasons (personenbedingt) — you have permanently lost the ability to perform the work (typically long-term illness).
- Behavioural reasons (verhaltensbedingt) — you have repeatedly breached duties, usually after at least one written warning (Abmahnung).
Extraordinary dismissal
An extraordinary dismissal under § 626 BGB ends the employment immediately, without notice. It is reserved for cases where it is unreasonable to expect the employer to continue the relationship even until the end of the notice period. The threshold is high. Typical examples accepted by the courts:
- Theft from the employer or from colleagues, even of low-value items.
- Physical violence at the workplace.
- Serious fraud (forged expense reports, fictitious sick notes).
- Gross insubordination after a clear instruction and a prior warning.
- Repeated, blatant breach of confidentiality.
Two procedural rules trip up most employers:
- The two-week window. The employer must issue the extraordinary dismissal within two weeks of learning the underlying facts (§ 626(2) BGB). Waiting longer means the right is forfeited — the employer is signalling that the breach was not, in fact, intolerable.
- The warning requirement for milder cases. If the breach could have been remedied by a warning, the employer must first warn and only dismiss extraordinarily on a repeat occurrence. Courts apply this rigorously.
The combined dismissal
Many German employers issue an extraordinary dismissal “supplementarily as an ordinary dismissal” (hilfsweise ordentlich). The idea: if the labor court does not accept the extraordinary grounds, the ordinary dismissal still ends the relationship at the end of the notice period. Both dismissals must be challenged within the same three-week window.
What this means for you
Receiving an extraordinary dismissal is more serious than an ordinary one — you have no notice pay and your unemployment benefits are usually blocked for 12 weeks (Sperrzeit). But the legal threshold is much higher, and most extraordinary dismissals do not survive court scrutiny. Almost all such cases end with a settlement that converts the dismissal into an ordinary one with notice pay, sometimes with severance.
Quick comparison
| Ordinary | Extraordinary | |
|---|---|---|
| Notice period | Yes (§ 622 BGB) | None — effective immediately |
| Statutory basis | KSchG (after 6 months) | § 626 BGB |
| Deadline for employer to act | None (employer may dismiss any time on valid grounds) | 2 weeks from learning the facts |
| Typical grounds | Operational, personal, behavioural | Theft, violence, gross insubordination, severe breach of trust |
| Sperrzeit on benefits | None (by itself) | Yes, 12 weeks — unless dismissal is held void |
| Wages during notice | Yes | None |
What “combined” dismissals look like
Most extraordinary dismissals come stapled to an ordinary dismissal as a fallback (“hilfsweise ordentlich”). The employer reasons: if the extraordinary basis fails in court, the ordinary one might still hold. For you the consequence is that you must challenge both within the same three-week window. We always plead against both and, in 80%+ of cases, the matter resolves with the extraordinary dismissal being dropped and the parties settling on the ordinary basis with notice pay and severance.
Quick test for extraordinary cause
Before treating an alleged ground as sufficient for extraordinary dismissal, the courts ask three questions: (1) Is the breach so serious that continuing the relationship is unreasonable even until the end of the notice period? (2) Could a warning have addressed it instead? (3) Was the dismissal issued within two weeks of the employer learning the facts? If any answer is “no”, the extraordinary dismissal almost certainly fails.