Arbeitszeugnis: the German employment reference and its grading language

First: ask for the qualified version, in writing and in time

The law gives you a simple reference by default and a qualified one if you ask. The Dortmund chamber of commerce (IHK Dortmund) notes that an employer can only fulfil the claim once the employee has said which of the two they want. So when you hand in your notice, or receive it, send a short written request for a qualifiziertes Arbeitszeugnis.

• Ask early. IHK Dortmund calls about one month from the request or from leaving a reasonable time frame for the employer to produce it.
• Do not wait for years. The claim falls under the standard three-year limitation period of § 195 BGB, starting at the end of the year, and an employment contract or collective agreement can set a shorter exclusion period (IHK Dortmund).
• Ask for an interim reference (Zwischenzeugnis) while still employed if you have a legitimate reason, such as a new manager, a transfer or an application elsewhere (IHK München).
• Your employer may not hold the reference back because you have not yet returned a phone or tools, IHK München says.

What the law says

§ 109 of the Gewerbeordnung (GewO) has three paragraphs. Paragraph 1: when an employment relationship ends, the employee is entitled to a written reference; it must at least state the type and duration of the work (simple reference), and the employee can demand that it also cover performance and conduct (qualified reference). Paragraph 2: the reference must be clear and understandable, and may not contain features or wording meant to say something about the employee other than what its form or words show. Paragraph 3: with the employee's consent it may be issued in electronic form.

Trainees and interns

§ 16 of the Vocational Training Act (BBiG) obliges training companies to give trainees a written reference covering the type, duration and goal of the training and the skills acquired, and performance and conduct on request. IHK München and IHK Dortmund add that § 26 BBiG extends a reference claim to interns and trainees outside formal training.

Electronic references since 2025

IHK Dortmund says electronic references have been possible since 1 January 2025 with the employee's consent, but require a qualified electronic signature from every person signing, so it expects the option to stay rare for now.

Form

IHK München lists the formal requirements: typed on normal business paper, clean, with no corrections, no hints through exclamation or question marks, italics or quotation marks, the place and date of issue, and a handwritten signature by the employer or a senior representative. In practice it is usually dated on the last day of employment.

Simple and qualified references compared

IHK Dortmund puts the difference this way: the statements on the type and duration of the work only describe, while those on performance and conduct assess the employee. The choice between the two is yours, not the employer's.

How a qualified reference is built

IHK München's model structure, which matches the outline in IHK Dortmund's information sheet:

1. Heading: Zeugnis or Arbeitszeugnis, Zwischenzeugnis, Ausbildungszeugnis.
2. Personal details: first name, surname, any academic degree.
3. Duration: start and end date.
4. Tasks: position, department, responsibilities, reporting line, career within the company.
5. Performance: willingness to work, ability (grasp, resilience, expertise, training), way of working, and results; for managers also leadership.
6. Summary performance rating, in the satisfaction formula.
7. Conduct towards superiors, colleagues, staff and customers.
8. Reason for leaving, only at the employee's request, and a closing formula.
9. Place, date and signature.

The closing sentence

References often end with thanks, regret at the departure and good wishes. IHK München points out that the Federal Labour Court decided in December 2012 that the employee has no legal right to such a closing formula. You can still ask for one; the employer decides.

The grading language: phrases and the grade they are read as

This table is the core of this page. The performance phrases are those IHK München lists; the variants column shows where IHK Dortmund differs; the conduct phrases are IHK München's. Both chambers present them as phrases that have become established in practice, comparable to school grades. They are a convention, not law.

Each phrase completes a sentence such as 'Sie hat die ihr übertragenen Aufgaben ... erledigt' (she completed the tasks assigned to her ...), or for conduct 'Ihr Verhalten zu Vorgesetzten, Kollegen und Kunden ...'. The Federal Labour Court itself calls 'vollste' a coinage (Wortschöpfung): in ordinary German, full cannot be fuller.

Convention, not law

§ 109 (2) GewO forbids wording meant to send a hidden message, so the scale is not a legal code. The Federal Labour Court treats it as Zeugnisbrauch, established usage, and IHK Dortmund stresses that an employer does not meet its duty by issuing a list of grades: the differentiation a reference needs only works in running text. Because the two chambers already differ on two rows, read the table as how the phrases are widely read, not as fixed values.

What the court said about "zur vollen Zufriedenheit"

In its judgment of 18 November 2014 (9 AZR 584/13), the Federal Labour Court held that "zur vollen Zufriedenheit" or "stets zur Zufriedenheit" corresponds to befriedigend, an average assessment, and that "gut" requires "stets", "immer" or "durchgehend" zur vollen Zufriedenheit. An employee who wants a better grade than average must state and prove the facts in court; an employer who gives a below-average grade must justify it. Statistics showing that good grades are common in a sector do not shift that burden, the court said.

Phrases IHK München advises against

• Unimportant tasks listed before important ones, or obvious duties praised instead of real achievements.
• A conduct sentence that names colleagues but leaves out superiors.
• Negations such as 'nicht unbedeutend' (not insignificant).
• 'bemühte sich' (made an effort), which reads as effort without result.

IHK München adds that the meaning always depends on the whole text, and that health, long absences, works council activity or a severe disability do not belong in a reference.

Presenting a Turkish reference in Germany

Turkish law has two documents that resemble the German pair. Article 28 of the Labour Act No. 4857 requires the employer to give a departing worker a document stating the kind of work and its duration, the counterpart of the simple reference. Article 426 of the Code of Obligations No. 6098 requires the employer to issue a service certificate (hizmet belgesi) at any time on request, and, if the worker explicitly asks, to include the worker's skill and conduct, which comes close to the qualified reference. The informal name for such a letter is bonservis.

What does not carry over

• The satisfaction scale. A Turkish letter is not written in it, and a translation should not invent it. A translator renders what the letter says; turning "çok başarılı" into "stets zu unserer vollsten Zufriedenheit" would put words in your employer's mouth.
• A referans mektubu, a letter of recommendation, is not a Zeugnis at all. Attach it as an Empfehlungsschreiben if it helps, not in place of a service certificate.

What to ask your Turkish employer for

1. A hizmet belgesi under art. 426 TBK that states your job title, start and end dates, and main tasks.
2. Your skill and conduct in it, which you must request explicitly.
3. Company letterhead, a signature, the place and date.
4. An English version if the company can issue one, which an employer who reads English can use without a translation.

Whether and how to translate it, and where it goes in the application file, is covered on the page about German application documents.

Sources and the date we read them

All sources below were read on 12 October 2026; links are under Sources.

Limits of this page

• It is not legal advice. If you dispute a reference, the route is a correction claim, if necessary before the labour court; IHK München notes that both issuing and correcting a reference can be enforced by action.
• Agency workers claim the reference from the agency (Verleiher), not the client company, according to IHK Dortmund.
• The grading table describes German references. It says nothing about how a Turkish, Austrian or Swiss employer writes.

Next steps

A reference supports your CV; it does not replace it. List the job and its tasks in the Lebenslauf and attach the reference as evidence. Grading phrases do not belong in a CV line. If you build the CV with CitedCV, the tasks a reference names are facts you can type in and confirm; the satisfaction formula is not one of them.

The German CV format, the cover letter and the full set of application documents each have their own page.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Gewerbeordnung, § 109 Zeugnis (gesetze-im-internet.de)www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gewo/__109.html
2. Berufsbildungsgesetz, § 16 Zeugnis (gesetze-im-internet.de)www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bbig_2005/__16.html
3. Bundesarbeitsgericht, Urteil vom 18. November 2014, 9 AZR 584/13www.bundesarbeitsgericht.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/9-AZR-584-13.pdf
4. IHK München, Merkblatt Das Arbeitszeugniswww.ihk-muenchen.de/ihk/pictures/Recht-Steuern/MB_Arbeitszeugnis_1.pdf
5. IHK zu Dortmund, Merkblatt Arbeitszeugniswww.ihk.de/blueprint/servlet/resource/blob/4831812/fc532795577c83c827a6baa7d2135f95/merkblatt-arbeitszeugnis-2020--data.pdf
6. Labour Act No. 4857, Türkiye (mevzuat.gov.tr)www.mevzuat.gov.tr/mevzuatmetin/1.5.4857.pdf
7. Code of Obligations No. 6098, Türkiye (mevzuat.gov.tr)www.mevzuat.gov.tr/mevzuatmetin/1.5.6098.pdf