How to address an envelope: layout and add-ons

Most undeliverable letters don't fail because of postage, but because of the address: a missing house number, the wrong add-on, the country on the wrong line. This guide shows the correct layout — within Germany and beyond.

The basic layout

The recipient's address goes in the bottom right, and the sender's, in small print, at the top left. It's read by machine from the bottom up: the town and postcode form the last line of a domestic address, with the street above it, and the name above that.

How to address an envelope in Germany: sender at top left, stamp at top right and recipient at bottom right — Example of a German envelope without an address window: sender at the top left, stamp at the top right and recipient address at the bottom right.

Line	Content	Example
1	Company or salutation + name	Muster GmbH
2	Contact person or department	c/o Ms Sabine Klein
3	Street and house number or PO box	Lindenstraße 12a
4	Postcode and town	50667 Köln

Placing add-ons correctly

"z. Hd." (for the attention of) goes above the street line, not below it — otherwise the sorting machine reads it as part of the address.
PO box instead of street: giving both at once is a common mistake. Pick one delivery method; the PO box postcode often differs from the street-address postcode.
"Personal" or "Confidential" goes above the name and means only the named person may open it — use sparingly in business correspondence.
c/o names the person under whose name the letterbox is labelled. Leave it out, and the item may come back as undeliverable.

International post

For items abroad, write the address in the destination country's format and put the country in capital letters on the last line — ideally in German, English or French. The postcode stays in the country's own format; prefixing a country code such as "F-" is now considered outdated.

Rule of thumb: everything above the country line is written for the destination country; the country line itself is written for the German postal service.

Common mistakes that cost time

Leaving out house-number suffixes such as "a" or "1/3".
An address that is crooked, too small, or too close to the edge — the reading zone needs clear space.
Using an old address from your address book instead of the latest invoice.
Folding a window envelope incorrectly, so part of the address is hidden.

Writing the letter in the online editor avoids the last two problems automatically: the address is placed in the standardised address field, printed and machine-inserted correctly.