German Lebenslauf format

What is a Lebenslauf?

A Lebenslauf is the German CV: two pages, laid out as a tabular list with dates on the left and content on the right, usually with a professional photograph in the top corner. It is factual and complete rather than persuasive, and German recruiters expect an unbroken timeline with no unexplained gaps.

It is only one part of what German employers call the Bewerbungsunterlagen — the full application set. A Lebenslauf sent alone, without a cover letter and without certificates, reads as an incomplete application in a market that treats documentation seriously.

Does a Lebenslauf need a photo and a signature?

A professional photo is still the norm, despite German anti-discrimination law making it formally optional. Most applicants include one, either in the top corner or on a separate Deckblatt cover sheet, and use a photographer rather than a phone snapshot — the quality of the photo is itself read as a signal.

Many employers, particularly Mittelstand companies and public bodies, still expect the place, date and a signature at the foot of the document. Adding them costs nothing and their absence is occasionally noticed.

What goes into a complete German application set?

A German application is usually a single PDF containing the cover letter, the Lebenslauf, and scanned certificates and references. Employers read the Arbeitszeugnis — the formal reference an employer issues on departure — as substantive evidence, and its absence from a German work history raises questions.

How should gaps in the timeline be handled?

Name them. German recruiters read the Lebenslauf as a continuous record, so a missing eight months is more damaging than an eight-month line reading "Elternzeit", "Sprachkurs Deutsch B2" or "Umschulung". A gap you explain in one line stops being a question.

Use month and year ranges consistently — "03/2021 - 09/2023" — so the timeline can be checked at a glance. Inconsistent or year-only dating is the most common formatting complaint about international applicants' documents.

Do you need German-language skills and a German version?

For most German-market roles, submit the Lebenslauf in German unless the advertisement is in English or the employer is an English-speaking company. State your German level by CEFR band and be honest: B2 is the usual threshold for working in the language, and claiming C1 without it will surface in the first call.

For foreign qualifications, note recognition status. Anerkennung of a degree or trade qualification, and the relevant chamber or authority, are worth stating explicitly because they determine whether you can be hired at all in regulated professions.

How do you keep a Lebenslauf machine-readable?

Use a real two-column table or a clean tabular layout rather than a designed graphic, keep headings standard, and export a text-based PDF. Large German employers and public bodies parse applications, and a Lebenslauf assembled as an image or in a design tool loses its dates and job titles in the process.

Keep the merged application PDF under about ten megabytes so it survives email and portal limits, and check that text is still selectable after merging scans.