German Phone Directory

Before starting talking about german phone directory, I must mention that if you want to make a call from outside Germany you must know the country code and the international call prefix. The international code prefix is 00 and the country code for Germany is 49, as you can see on the picture below.




In the german phone directory there are no standards regarding area code, is good to know that larger towns have shorter area codes this is because the telecom company must release as many numbers as possible. Shorter towns have the area code up to five digits, because the population number is small and is no need for a big collection of numbers to be released. Regarding the private number, this is made from 7 or 8 digits for the big towns and 3 or 4 digits for smaller towns.

As an example, the area code for Berlin is 30, or for Hamburg is 40 and so on.

For you to have a better view I attached a map with area codes for german regions.

You can see on the map that area code 01 is not used, because it is for special numbers as mobiles (for T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 Germany, E-Plus etc clients) or as international virtual private numbers (IVPN).

On the map, you see that areas codes are starting with 0 and then the area code. The prefix “0” must be dialed is you are making the call within Germany, and if you are making the call from the same area is no need to dial the area codes. When you are making the call from outside Germany you must not dial the “0” prefix.

As a short example if you want to call your friend that is living in Hamburg you must dial 00 49 40 xxxxxxx, where xxxxxxx represent his telephone number. If your friend is living in a small village Tutow you must dial 00 49 39999 xxx, where 39999 is the area code made from five digits and xxx is his telephone number.

For you security if you want to make a trip to Germany is best to know also the emergency numbers, which are 110 for the police and 112 for fire and ambulance.

In Deutschland, do not expect that from the other part of the line to receive a Good morning or Guten morgen, they usually identify themselves first. Also for a foreign that is making a call in Germany can be a little tricky, because you can be confronted with recorded messages as: Kein Anschluss unter dieser Nummber = This number is unavailable;  Bitte warten Sie, sie werden in Kürze verbunden = Please wait, you will be connected shortly; Bitte versuchen Sie es später noch einmal = Please try again later etc.

Calling from or to Germany is pretty much the same as in any country, so do not let yourself  numb by area codes, when to use them or not, when to dial “0” prefix.