Elternzeit in Germany: notice deadlines, email rules and…

You want several months at home with your child. Before notifying your employer, check the birth date, proposed start and finances. Elternzeit notice and an Elterngeld application go to different places and do different jobs.

Leave and money are separate

Elternzeit is statutory, generally unpaid leave for eligible employees caring for a child in their household. Each parent can generally take up to three years per child, with up to 24 months between the third birthday and the day before the eighth birthday. Post-birth maternity protection counts towards the mother’s maximum leave entitlement.

Elterngeld is a separate benefit applied for through the Elterngeldstelle. Taking leave does not automatically produce a payment, and the full leave period is not necessarily funded. Check benefit eligibility, the child’s life-months and health-insurance contributions before deciding how long to stop working. Self-employed people and civil servants need their own relevant rules checked.

When must the employer receive notice?

For the currently relevant age groups, notice must reach the employer:

- At least seven weeks before leave taken before the third birthday.

- At least 13 weeks before leave between the third and eighth birthdays.

Urgent exceptional circumstances can justify a shorter appropriate period, but do not assume an exception without checking. If a non-birthing parent wants leave from birth, the calculated due date is used to plan the notice; the actual leave begins at birth. A mother taking leave after maternity protection must calculate her start accordingly.

Is an email sufficient?

For children born or taken into the household with a view to adoption from 1 May 2025, text form is sufficient, for example an email identifying you and clearly specifying the leave. For earlier birth or placement cohorts, the older written-form requirement continues: use a personally signed paper notice. An ordinary email or scan does not replace that requirement.

The transition depends on the child’s date, not simply on sending the notice after May 2025. Keep proof that it reached the correct employer contact. Ask for the employer’s required confirmation of the leave and check the recorded dates.

Plan the binding period

When notifying leave before the third birthday, you must also state which periods within the following two years you will take. Maternity protection, and in the relevant case holiday immediately following it, count towards this period for the mother. Leaving a second period out can mean needing employer consent to add it later within the binding period. Early return and extensions also have rules and exceptions; do not change the dates unilaterally.

For example, Lena’s child was born in June 2026. She wants leave starting in March 2027. Email can meet the form requirement, but she must still meet the seven-week deadline and state her plan for the binding period. A colleague whose child was born in April 2025 still needs the older written form.

What protection applies?

Special dismissal protection starts when leave is requested, but no earlier than eight weeks before leave before age three, or 14 weeks before leave from age three. It continues during the leave. In exceptional cases, the competent authority can permit dismissal. An ordinary fixed-term contract normally still ends on its agreed date; parental leave does not automatically extend it.

Before sending

- Verify the birth or adoption-placement date and required form.

- Calculate receipt deadlines and the binding period.

- State clear start and end dates; retain the notice and receipt evidence.

- Plan Elterngeld and insurance separately.

- Check part-time work or unusual leave splits separately.

If dismissed, get employment-law advice immediately. The normal court-action deadline is three weeks from receipt of written dismissal; cases requiring authority approval have special timing rules. Do not assume protection makes a dismissal letter harmless. This guide is general information, not a review of your employment contract.

Checked: 18 October 2026.

Official sources

- BEEG §15: entitlement

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/beeg/__15.html

- BEEG §16: notice

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/beeg/__16.html

- BEEG §18: dismissal protection

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/beeg/__18.html

- BEEG §28: transitional rules

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/beeg/__28.html

- Federal Family Portal: parental leave

https://familienportal.de/familienportal/familienleistungen/elternzeit/faq

- KSchG §4: court deadlines

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/kschg/__4.html