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Month by month: what starts when in your Probezeit
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Janine El Saghir is an editor at How-to-Germany.com, where she specializes in the practical aspects of daily life and integration for expatriates. With years of...
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- Up to six months, only if your contract says so. Either side can end the job with two weeks’ notice, on any day, and the employer needs no reason.
- Your rights start earlier than the probation ends: sick pay from the employer after four weeks, vacation at one twelfth per month from day one.
- After six months in a company with more than ten employees, the employer needs a legally recognized reason to dismiss you. That protection comes from the law, not from the probation clause.
Probezeit is the German word for the probation period, and most contracts have one. What it changes is the notice period and how easily a job can end. What it does not change is your pay, your hours or your right to be ill. Check the first payslip against the offer with the salary calculator, and keep the timeline below next to your contract.
Cover yourself in the first week, not after a dismissal
A dismissal in the probation period needs no reason, but it still has to be a signed letter on paper, and you still have three weeks to challenge it in court if you believe it breaks the law, for example because you are pregnant. At the labor court each side pays its own lawyer in the first instance, win or lose. Legal insurance with the employment module pays yours, after a waiting period of three months in most policies and six in some. Taking it out in the first week means the cover is in place when the probation ends. Feather and Getsafe run applications and claims in English. Modules, waiting periods and exclusions: legal insurance in Germany.
The first seven months, with dates
The example assumes a start on Monday, 1 February 2027, a five-day week, 20 vacation days a year and an employer with more than ten staff.
| Date | What changes | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 February 2027 | The job starts. Notice period for both sides: two weeks, on any day. Vacation entitlement begins to build. | Probation agreed in the contract |
| 1 March 2027 | Sick pay from the employer: full salary for up to six weeks per illness. Before this date your statutory health insurer pays sick pay instead. | Four weeks of employment completed |
| 30 April 2027 | Three full months done: 5 vacation days earned, one twelfth of 20 per month. | Partial vacation before the six-month mark |
| 31 July 2027 | Last day of the longest probation the law allows. | Six months |
| 1 August 2027 | Full vacation entitlement. The employer now needs a reason to dismiss you, and a dismissal can be challenged as socially unjustified. Notice period from now on: four weeks to the 15th or the end of a month, unless the contract gives more. | More than six months of employment |
| Sources: Civil Code, Federal Vacation Act, Continued Remuneration Act, Protection Against Dismissal Act; DAK health insurer, retrieved 4 November 2026. | ||
If your employer has ten or fewer employees, the reason requirement never kicks in. The six-month mark still matters for vacation, and the written-form rule applies from day one.
Resigning or being dismissed during probation
Two weeks, counted from the day the letter arrives. A dismissal received on Thursday, 10 June 2027 ends the job on 24 June 2027. The same applies to your own resignation: a signed letter on paper, handed over or delivered. An email is not valid.
If the contract sets a longer notice period for the probation, it applies to the employer as well. The law does not allow a longer period for you than for the employer. How to write the letter: resigning in Germany. After a dismissal, register with the Federal Employment Agency as a job seeker within three days of receiving the letter. That can be done online.
Getting ill in the probation period
Being ill does not stretch the probation or cost you rights. Tell your employer before the start of your shift. From the fourth day you need a doctor’s certificate, earlier if the employer asks for it. In the first four weeks of the job your statutory health insurer pays sick pay (Krankengeld): 70% of your gross pay, capped at 90% of your net pay and at €135.63 a day. From the fifth week your employer pays your full salary for up to six weeks. The telephone sick note, the electronic certificate and what happens after six weeks: sick leave in Germany.
Vacation during probation
You earn one twelfth of your annual vacation for every full month, and fractions of half a day or more round up to a full day. Nothing in the law stops you from taking those days during probation. The employer sets the timing but has to consider your wishes. The full annual entitlement is yours after six months. Work out your days: vacation days calculator. The rules on carry-over and pay: vacation days in Germany.
Who is protected from day one
Some protections do not wait six months. A pregnant employee cannot be dismissed during the pregnancy and until at least four months after the birth, as long as the employer knows about the pregnancy or learns of it within two weeks of the dismissal. From the day you request parental leave, and at the earliest eight weeks before it begins, a dismissal is barred as well. Both apply during probation.
Bottom line
Decide on legal insurance in your first week, so the cover is in place when the probation ends, and keep the timeline next to your contract. Leaving on your own? A signed letter on paper does it, at the short notice period.
Part of working in Germany. Before day one: the employment contract. Later: resigning · your reference letter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not in any way that matters. The two-week notice period is only available for an agreed probation of up to six months, and dismissal protection in companies with more than ten employees starts after six months of employment whatever the contract calls that time. A longer ‘probation’ in the contract changes neither.
No, they are two different clocks that often end on the same day. The probation is a clause in your contract and can be shorter than six months or missing altogether. The protection against dismissal comes from the law and starts after six months of employment in companies with more than ten employees, probation or not.
No. An employee never has to give a reason for resigning, in or after the probation period. What you do need is a signed letter on paper that reaches the employer at least two weeks before your intended last day.
Yes. What counts is the day the letter reaches you, not the last working day. If it arrives within the six months, the two-week notice period applies and the job ends two weeks later. If it arrives after the six months are over, the normal notice period applies and, in larger companies, the employer needs a reason.
Read the conditions printed on your residence permit: most work permits are tied to a specific job, and a change has to be reported to the immigration office. The job-seeker and work visa pages explain the options. Register as a job seeker with the Federal Employment Agency within three days either way, which keeps your unemployment benefit claim intact if you have paid in for twelve months.
Sources and legal basis (as of 4 November 2026)
Sources and legal basis (as of 4 November 2026)
- German Civil Code (BGB), § 622: probation of up to six months with two weeks’ notice, the general four-week notice period, no longer period for the employee than for the employer; § 623: written form of every termination.
- Protection Against Dismissal Act (Kündigungsschutzgesetz), § 1: protection after more than six months; § 23: companies with more than ten employees; § 4: three weeks to file a claim; Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, protection against dismissal (in German).
- Labor Court Act (Arbeitsgerichtsgesetz), § 12a: each side pays its own lawyer in the first instance.
- Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act (TzBfG), § 15: probation in a fixed-term contract must be in proportion.
- Continued Remuneration Act (Entgeltfortzahlungsgesetz), § 3: six weeks of sick pay, entitlement after four weeks of employment; § 5: notification and certificate.
- DAK health insurer, sick pay for employees: sick pay from the insurer in the first four weeks of a new job (in German).
- Social Code Book V (SGB V), § 47: 70% of gross pay, at most 90% of net pay; Techniker Krankenkasse, sick pay: entitlement, duration, amount: daily maximum of €135.63 in 2026 (in German).
- Federal Vacation Act (Bundesurlaubsgesetz), § 3: 24 working days; § 4: full entitlement after six months; § 5: one twelfth per full month, rounding; § 7: timing of vacation.
- Social Code Book III (SGB III), § 38: registering as a job seeker three months before the end or within three days; Federal Employment Agency, register as a jobseeker in good time and how to register (online registration, in German); § 142: twelve months of contributions.
- Maternity Protection Act (Mutterschutzgesetz), § 17: no dismissal during pregnancy and for four months after the birth.
- Parental Allowance and Parental Leave Act (BEEG), § 18: no dismissal from the request for parental leave, at the earliest eight weeks before it starts.
Further sources (retrieved on 4 November 2026). Legal insurance waiting periods: the providers’ product pages as documented on legal insurance in Germany. Product data: our own product database.