German Area Codes: How to Read Any Landline Number
Short answer
German area codes are two to five digits long and cover about 5,200 local network areas. Inside Germany you dial a 0 first, from abroad you replace that 0 with +49. Codes starting with 01 are mobile or special-rate ranges, not places. An area code shows where a number was assigned, not where the caller is right now.
If you have just moved to Germany, the phone numbers on your rental contract, your doctor’s letterhead and the Bürgeramt website probably look inconsistent. One has four digits after the 0, another has three, a third starts with 01. That is not sloppiness. The German numbering plan is old, regional and allows area codes of different lengths, and once you see the pattern it becomes easy to read.
How a German landline number is built
Every German geographic number has two parts: the area code, officially called Ortsnetzkennzahl, and the subscriber number. The leading 0 is not part of the number itself. It is the trunk prefix that tells the network an area code follows, which is why it disappears when someone dials from abroad.
According to the Bundesnetzagentur, Germany’s telecoms regulator, the country is split into 5,200 local network areas. Each one has a code of two to five digits.
- 0Trunk prefix. Dialled inside Germany, dropped from abroad.
- 221Area code for Cologne. Two to five digits depending on the area.
- 1234567Subscriber number. Area code plus subscriber number is the national number.
- +49 221 1234567The same number in international format, as you would save it in your phone.
Length is regulated. Under a 2009 order from the regulator, new single-line numbers get eleven digits, counted without the leading 0. Only four cities have two-digit codes and therefore ten-digit numbers: Berlin (030), Hamburg (040), Frankfurt am Main (069) and Munich (089). Older lines in villages can be shorter, so a five-digit code followed by a five-digit number is perfectly normal.
Which prefixes are places and which are not
The digit after the 0 does most of the work. Anything from 02 to 09 is generally a local area. Several ranges inside that space are not places at all, and those are the ones worth recognising.
| Criterion | Meaning | Tells you a location |
|---|---|---|
| 015, 016, 017 | Mobile (0164, 0168, 0169 are pagers) | |
| 0137 | Mass calling, e.g. TV votes | |
| 0180 | Service lines, company hotlines | |
| 012 | currently reserved, not in use | |
| 02 to 09 | Local areas | |
| 032 | National numbers without location | |
| 0700 | Personal numbers (forwarding) | |
| 0800 | Freephone | |
| 0900 | Premium-rate services |
Source: Bundesnetzagentur numbering plan, order 29/2015 as amended up to 2025
So 0800 is not a town in the Saarland, it is a freephone line. 0900 is premium rate and can cost up to €2.99 a minute. Our guide to German premium-rate numbers lists the exact prices.
Within real local areas, the second digit gives you a rough region and nothing more precise. Cologne (0221), Düsseldorf (0211) and Dortmund (0231) all start with 02 and all sit in North Rhine-Westphalia. Leipzig (0341), Dresden (0351) and Magdeburg (0391) share the 03. Stuttgart is 0711, Freiburg 0761, Nuremberg 0911. For anything more exact you need the full code, because the area boundaries do not follow state or municipal borders. Mannheim and Ludwigshafen even share 0621 although they are in different federal states.
Looking up an unfamiliar area code
The quickest way is our number checker. It recognises the area codes of larger cities as well as mobile and special-rate ranges, and gives a rough idea of what calling back costs. It runs entirely in your browser.
For the full list of all 5,200 codes, the Bundesnetzagentur publishes a directory with the name of each local network. Keep in mind that the name is that of the network area. One area often covers several villages, so a code labelled with a small town may also serve the farms and suburbs around it.
An area code does not prove where someone is calling from
This is where newcomers and locals alike get caught. The area code shows which local network a number was assigned to. It says nothing reliable about where the caller is sitting.
There are three reasons. Landline numbers can be kept when switching provider, and with internet telephony a Cologne number can ring on a laptop in Lisbon. The displayed number can also be faked, a technique called caller ID spoofing that we explain in our article on spoofed caller IDs in Germany. And some businesses simply pretend to be local.
On paper, a geographic number requires a link to that area: the line in your own premises there, a residence or a business address. Order 25/2006 tells providers to check this with an ID card, a registration certificate or a trade registration. Still, the regulator keeps receiving complaints about what it calls faked local presence. Its own examples are locksmiths, drain cleaners and pest controllers. You think you are calling a firm round the corner and end up with a dispatcher who sends someone from much further away and bills the journey. The regulator can order such numbers to be switched off. My advice: for emergency trades, check the company’s legal notice (Impressum) for a street address in town. If there is none, the local area code means nothing.
What happens to your number when you move
The address rule is not a one-off check. Providers have to verify it during the contract as well, and if you got the number because of your home address, the right to use it ends when you no longer live in that area.
So moving within Hamburg keeps your 040. Moving from Hamburg to Bremen means a new 0421 number. If you move often or want one number for life in Germany, a 032 number is the honest option. It has no location, is commonly used for internet telephony and, under section 112 of the Telecommunications Act, calls to it may cost at most 9 cents a minute.
When you have to dial the area code
Within the same local area most landline providers let you leave out the code. The numbering plan leaves it to each provider whether to offer this. On a mobile you always dial the full number, because a mobile phone belongs to no local area.
From outside Germany, replace the 0 with +49 or 0049. So 089 123456 becomes +49 89 123456. Business cards often show +49 (0)89 123456. Do not dial the bracketed 0, the call will fail. Our page on the +49 country code covers formats for saving and writing German numbers.
Area codes that look like foreign country codes
Miss one zero and a German area code turns into a foreign country code. The regulator itself uses the first pair below as a warning example:
- 0261 Koblenz, 00261 Madagascar
- 0221 Cologne, 00221 Senegal
- 0231 Dortmund, 00231 Liberia
- 0241 Aachen, 00241 Gabon
All four of those foreign codes are on the list for which German mobile networks must play a free price announcement before connecting you, a measure aimed at one-ring scams. If an unknown number starts with a double zero or a plus sign and you have no contacts in that country, do not call back. Our guide to one-ring scams explains why.
Businesses that handle many customer numbers, in a CRM or a support tool, should not hand-code area code parsing. Studios such as OnlineBuilders can build that logic properly into your own platform.
Your next step: paste a number you do not recognise into the number checker and compare what it says with what the caller claimed to be.
Classify a number: Uses the prefix to tell whether a number is landline, mobile, a special-rate range or foreign, and roughly what calling back costs.
Questions people ask
What is the area code for Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt?
Berlin is 030, Hamburg 040, Frankfurt am Main 069 and Munich 089. From abroad drop the 0: +49 30, +49 40, +49 69 and +49 89. These four are the only two-digit area codes in Germany.
Why do German phone numbers have different lengths?
Area codes run from two to five digits, and older subscriber numbers are often shorter than new ones. Since 2009, new single-line numbers are eleven digits long without the leading 0, or ten in the four cities with two-digit codes.
Can I get a Berlin landline number if I live elsewhere?
Officially no. A geographic number needs a link to that local area: the line in your own premises there, a residence or a business address. If you got it because of your home address, you lose the right to it when you move away. Location-independent numbers start with 032.
Do I need to dial the area code for a local call?
On most German landlines you can skip it when calling within the same local area, but providers are not obliged to support that. From a mobile phone you always dial the full number.
