Germany Country Code +49: How to Dial and Write Numbers
Short answer
Germany's country code is 49. Dial +49 from a mobile, 00 49 from most of Europe or 011 49 from the US and Canada, then the German number without its leading 0. So 030 1234567 in Berlin becomes +49 30 1234567. The common format +49 (0)30 is a hint for readers; never dial the bracketed 0.
Picture a German supplier whose email signature says +49 (0)711 1234567. Your colleague in Chicago dials exactly that, including the zero, and gets an error tone. This happens daily, and the fix takes one second once you know what each part of a German number does.
What +49 means
49 is Germany’s country code in the worldwide numbering plan that the International Telecommunication Union defines in Recommendation E.164. Germany’s regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, builds its national plan on that standard: an international number has at most 15 digits including the country code, so a German national number has at most 13.
Before the country code you need an international prefix that tells your network you are calling abroad. Across the UK, Ireland and most of Europe it is 00; the US and Canada use 011. The plus sign stands in for whatever the local prefix is, and mobile phones translate it automatically. That is why +49 is the format to use whenever you can.
The 0 at the start of a German area code is not part of the number. It is a domestic trunk prefix, so it disappears as soon as you dial from outside Germany.
How to dial a German number from abroad
- Domestic
0221 1234567: trunk 0, area code 221, subscriber number. - Drop the 0
221 1234567 - Add 49
49 221 1234567: Germany's country code. - Add your exit code
+49 221 1234567from any mobile,00 49 221 1234567from the UK or EU,011 49 221 1234567from the US or Canada.
Mobile numbers follow the same rule. 0176 12345678 becomes +49 176 12345678.
Special-rate numbers are different. German 0180, 0137 and even 0800 numbers are designed for callers inside German networks and are often unreachable from abroad. If a German company only lists such a number, look for an alternative marked “aus dem Ausland” (from abroad), usually a normal geographic number. Our guide to German premium-rate numbers explains what each range costs.
Writing German numbers correctly
Within Germany, business correspondence follows the DIN 5008 standard. It groups numbers by function: spaces separate country code, area code and subscriber number, and a hyphen separates an extension. Internationally, the ITU’s Recommendation E.123 also puts the + and the country code first, with no domestic 0.
| Criterion | Dials correctly | Use it? |
|---|---|---|
| 030 1234567 | yes, inside Germany | fine for local contacts |
| +49 30 1234567 | yes, everywhere | best choice |
| +49 30 1234-567 | yes, everywhere | with an extension |
| 0049 30 1234567 | yes, from 00 countries | prefer +49 |
| +49 (0)30 1234567 | no, if the 0 is dialled | avoid |
| 030/1234567 | yes, inside Germany | outdated |
On a website, make the number a link: tel:+49301234567, with no spaces and no 0. Any smartphone can dial it, wherever it is. For databases and CRMs, store numbers in E.164 form (plus sign, digits, nothing else) and format them only for display.
Why expats should save every number with +49
If you live in Germany, save contacts as +49. Any contact stored as +49 171 2345678 works at home and when you travel. One stored as 0171 2345678 only works while you are on a German network. Abroad, your phone dials the 0 and the call fails.
It also helps caller matching. Incoming calls are matched to contacts by number, and if the network delivers the number in international format, a contact saved in international format matches more reliably.
The same advice works in reverse. Tell friends and family outside Germany to save your German number as +49, not as 0049 or with the 0. From a US landline they can always replace the + with 011.
How long a German number can be
Web forms built outside Germany often reject valid German numbers because they expect a fixed length. They should not. German geographic numbers vary. New single lines get eleven digits after the 0, and in the four cities with two-digit area codes (Berlin 030, Hamburg 040, Frankfurt 069, Munich 089) they get ten. With 49 in front, that is 13 or 12 digits. Old rural lines can be shorter, company extensions longer. The only hard limit is E.164: 15 digits including the country code.
If you run a form that accepts German numbers, validate that the number starts with a real prefix and stays within 15 digits, and leave the length otherwise open.
What +49 on your screen tells you
On many smartphones even calls from inside Germany show up with +49, because the network transmits the number in international format. +49 on the display does not mean the caller is abroad.
The reverse rule matters more. Since 1 December 2022, section 120 of the German Telecommunications Act requires networks to suppress the display of German numbers on calls handed over from foreign networks. You see “unknown” or “anonymous” instead. The exception is German mobile numbers roaming abroad. So a scammer outside Germany can no longer easily show you a German landline number, although spoofing has not disappeared. Our article on caller ID spoofing in Germany explains what is left.
Foreign country codes that look German
Forget a zero and a country code turns into a German area code, or the other way round. 00261 is Madagascar, 0261 is Koblenz. 00216 is Tunisia, 02161 is Mönchengladbach. One-ring scams play on exactly this. Our guide to the one-ring scam explains how they work and what calling back costs.
To check any number quickly, use our number checker. It recognises +, 00 and 0049 prefixes, names the country and flags expensive satellite ranges such as +881 and +882.
Common mistakes with German numbers
- +49 0171 …: the 0 after 49 is one digit too many. The call fails.
- 0049 (0)89 …: people dial the bracketed zero here too.
- 49 30 … without + or 00: the network reads it as a local number.
- 00049 …: an extra zero. Do not count on the network fixing it.
Emergency numbers are the exception to all of this. Within Germany you dial 110 for the police and 112 for fire and ambulance directly, with no country code. 112 works across the EU. The card-blocking line 116 116 and the out-of-hours doctor service 116 117 are also dialled without any prefix.
If your company serves customers in several countries, collect the country and the number in separate form fields and validate automatically. Partners such as OnlineBuilders can build that kind of input handling into your platform once, properly.
Your next step: search your phone’s contacts for German numbers that start with 0 and replace the 0 with +49. Then read our guide to German area codes to see what the digits after +49 tell you.
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
How do I call Germany from the United States?
Dial 011, then 49, then the German area code without its 0, then the subscriber number. For a Munich number 089 1234567 that is 011 49 89 1234567. From a mobile you can simply dial +49 89 1234567.
How do I call Germany from the UK?
Dial 00 49 followed by the number without the leading 0. A Hamburg number 040 1234567 becomes 00 49 40 1234567, or +49 40 1234567 from a mobile.
Is +49 always a call from Germany?
Usually, but not always. Since December 2022 calls arriving from foreign networks may not display a German number, except German mobiles roaming abroad. Spoofing inside Germany is still possible.
Can I dial emergency numbers with +49?
No need. In Germany you dial 110 for police and 112 for fire and ambulance directly, without any country or area code. 112 also works across the EU.
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