Notice periods in Germany: ending employment on December 31

Latest dates for employment to end on December 31, 2026

How early notice has to arrive depends on who gives notice and how long the employment has lasted on the day it is received. When the employer terminates, § 622(2) of the German Civil Code (BGB) extends the notice period (Kündigungsfrist) in seven steps from one month up to seven months, always to the end of a calendar month. When employees resign, and for employment of less than two years, the basic period applies: four weeks to the 15th or to the end of a month (§ 622(1) BGB).

The table shows, for each step, the latest date on which notice must be received for employment to end on December 31, 2026. Each row is a call to the calculator for statutory notice periods under § 622 BGB, with a start date that falls into that step.

For the longer steps, the date has already passed. With ten or more years of service, the latest date of receipt was August 31, 2026, with 20 or more years it was May 31, 2026. Employees with eight to under ten years of service must receive notice by September 30, 2026. If it arrives one day later, employment only ends on January 31, 2027.

Latest date of receipt for employment to end on December 31, 2026

Source: § 622 BGB, notice periods for employment relationships

How to count back from December 31

The period starts on the day after receipt; the day of receipt itself does not count (§ 187(1) BGB). A period in months ends on the day with the same number as the day of receipt, a period in weeks on the same weekday (§ 188(2) BGB). If that day does not exist in the final month, the period ends on the last day of that month (§ 188(3) BGB). Only then does the termination date come in: the next end of a month or, for the basic period, the next 15th or month end.

An example with one month's notice: if notice is received on November 30, 2026, the period ends on December 30, 2026, and the next month end is December 31, 2026. If it arrives one day later, on December 1, 2026, the period runs until January 1, 2027, and employment continues until January 31, 2027. One day's delay moves the end by a full month.

The basic period is four weeks, or 28 days. Receipt on December 3, 2026, puts the end of the period on December 31, 2026. One day later pushes the end to the next permitted date, January 15, 2027.

To find the step, the calculator counts full years of service up to the day of receipt. Example: start date October 15, 2016, receipt on September 30, 2026. That makes 9 full years, so the eight-year step applies and employment ends on December 31, 2026. Had the same notice arrived on October 15, 2026, it would be 10 years, and the end would move to February 28, 2027.

What counts as receipt

• Handing it over: notice is received when the letter is handed over. If the person refuses to take it, placing it within their immediate reach so they can pick it up is enough (Federal Labor Court, BAG, March 26, 2015, 2 AZR 483/14).
• Mailbox: a declaration to someone who is not present takes effect when it is received (§ 130(1) BGB). For a home mailbox, that is the time when, by normal standards, the next emptying can be expected. For letters from Deutsche Post there is prima facie evidence that they are delivered at the usual times, so the delivery day counts (BAG, June 20, 2024, 2 AZR 213/23).
• Vacation or sickness do not prevent receipt. If the employee could have taken note under normal circumstances, the notice has been received (BAG, 2 AZR 213/23).
• Registered mail with mailbox delivery (Einwurf-Einschreiben): the posting receipt and the online tracking status do not prove receipt (BAG, January 30, 2025, 2 AZR 68/24). A messenger who can testify to the delivery is one way to prove it.
• Form: notice must be in writing with a handwritten signature (§§ 623 and 126 BGB). Electronic form is excluded, so notice by email or messenger is invalid.
• Weekends and holidays: if the latest date of receipt falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, it does not move to the next working day. The BAG does not apply § 193 BGB to notice periods (judgment of March 5, 1970, 2 AZR 112/69).

Saturdays, holidays and the works council in 2026

Two dates in the table fall on a weekend in 2026. The date for the five-year step, October 31, 2026, is a Saturday and also Reformation Day (Reformationstag), a public holiday in nine states, including Lower Saxony and Saxony. The date for the 20-year step, May 31, 2026, was a Sunday. Because the date does not move, plan delivery for the five-year step for Friday, October 30, 2026, at the latest.

If there is a works council (Betriebsrat), it must be consulted before every dismissal, otherwise the dismissal is invalid (§ 102(1) of the Works Constitution Act, BetrVG). It has one week to raise concerns about an ordinary dismissal in writing; after that, its consent is deemed given (§ 102(2) BetrVG). Start the consultation early enough for that week to be over before the planned date of receipt.

Probation and resignations by employees

During an agreed probation period of up to six months, notice is two weeks, with no fixed end date (§ 622(3) BGB). The calculator applies it if notice is received within the first six months; employment may end after that. With a start date of July 1, 2026, and six months' probation, probation lasts until December 31, 2026. Notice received on December 17, 2026, ends employment on December 31, 2026.

For fixed-term contracts, the probation period must be proportionate to the expected length of the contract and the type of work (§ 15(3) of the Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act, TzBfG). There is no fixed benchmark. In 2025, the BAG rejected a rule of 25 percent of the contract term and upheld four months' probation in a one-year contract (BAG, October 30, 2025, 2 AZR 160/24).

When employees resign, the extended steps do not apply, because § 622(2) BGB only covers dismissal by the employer. The basic period of four weeks to the 15th or the end of a month remains, even after 14 years of service, which makes December 3, 2026, the latest date of receipt. If the employment contract extends the longer periods to both sides, they apply to employees as well. The employee's period may not be longer than the employer's (§ 622(6) BGB).

When the table does not apply

• Collective agreement (Tarifvertrag): it may set shorter or longer periods. Employers and employees who are not bound by it can adopt it in the employment contract if they fall within its scope (§ 622(4) BGB).
• Employment contract: longer periods are allowed. Less than four weeks is only possible for temporary help of up to three months. Employers with usually no more than 20 employees, not counting trainees, may agree on four weeks without a fixed end date (§ 622(5) BGB).
• Pregnancy and parental leave: dismissal is prohibited under § 17 of the Maternity Protection Act (MuSchG) and § 18 of the Parental Allowance and Parental Leave Act (BEEG). An exception requires the competent state authority to declare the dismissal permissible in a special case.
• Severely disabled employees: dismissal requires the prior consent of the Integration Office (Integrationsamt) (§ 168 SGB IX). The office should decide within one month; the employer then has one month to give notice (§ 171 SGB IX). The notice period is at least four weeks (§ 169 SGB IX).
• Works council members: ordinary dismissal is ruled out, and remains so for one year after their term ends (§ 15(1) of the Dismissal Protection Act, KSchG).
• After receipt: anyone who wants to challenge a dismissal must file a claim with the labor court within three weeks of receipt (§ 4 KSchG).

Check the latest date of receipt via the API

$ curl "https://api.quellenkontor.dev/v1/hr/kuendigungsfrist?eintritt=2020-04-01&zugang=2026-10-31" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $QK_KEY"

# Excerpt of the response
{
  "eintritt": "2020-04-01",
  "zugang": "2026-10-31",
  "seite": "arbeitgeber",
  "betriebszugehoerigkeit_jahre": 6,
  "frist": "2 Monate zum Ende eines Kalendermonats",
  "frist_code": "monate_2_zum_monatsende",
  "rechtsgrundlage": "§ 622 Abs. 2 Satz 1 Nr. 2 BGB"
}

What the API returns

You pass eintritt (start date) and zugang (date of receipt), optionally seite (who gives notice) and probezeit, and get back the notice period, the end of the period and the end of employment. Dates use the YYYY-MM-DD format; for the call above, ende holds December 31, 2026. Text values such as frist are in German, while frist_code gives a stable key for your code.

All fields and their types are listed in the response field reference. For a fixed date such as December 31, it pays to calculate the latest date of receipt for each step once a year and add them to the HR calendar.

If an assistant answers employee questions, it calls the hr_kuendigungsfrist tool through the MCP server instead of counting days itself. The use case notice periods in an HR chatbot shows how that works.

Every Tuesday, the review compares the amendment status of the laws behind the calculators, and tests check notice periods under § 622 BGB at the boundaries of each step. The details are in the review process.