Telephone numbers in Germany


The regulation of telephone numbers in Germany is the responsibility of the Federal Network Agency of the German government. The agency has a mandate to telecommunications in Germany and other infrastructure systems.

Overview

Germany has an open telephone numbering plan with variable sizes of area codes and subscriber telephone numbers. Before 2010, area codes and subscriber telephone numbers had no fixed size, meaning that some subscriber numbers may be as short as two digits. As a result, dialing sequences are generally of a variable length, except for some non-geographic area codes for which subscriber numbers use a fixed-length format. It is not possible to determine unambiguously the end of a phone number from a prefix or the digits already dialed. This feature allows the extension of the numbering plan without revoking or changing existing numbers. Mobile telephones are assigned to non-geographic codes, making them readily recognizable.
A new numbering plan was introduced on 3 May 2010. Since then newly assigned landline telephone numbers have a standard size of eleven digits, including the area code. Area codes remained unchanged, variable in length. Exceptions to the eleven-digit rule are the cities of Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Munich, which are the only cities with two-digit area codes and have ten-digit numbers to avoid exceeding the maximum length of eight digits for a subscriber number.
The German telephone network uses 5,200 geographical area codes, varying from two to five digits, with five-digit area codes being assigned only in the New States, starting with the digit 3. In general, geographic area codes start with digits 2 to 9, whereas other non-geographic area codes are assigned to 1 and network services to 11.

Geographic numbering

Geographic area codes consist of two to five digits. The maximum size of the national telephone number is eleven digits.
Telephone numbers with geographic area codes are assigned to carriers in blocks. Subscriber numbers do not start with 0 or 11 and can be dialled without the area code from landlines within the same geographic area code.
Originally, the first digits following the area code indicated a smaller service area or the type of the subscriber line. This is no longer true as subscribers can keep their numbers when moving within an area code or when switching from analogue to ISDN. Furthermore, new carriers assign numbers from different blocks.
  • xxxx-xxxx
  • xxxx-xxxx
  • xxx-xxxx
  • xx-xxxx

    Non-geographic numbering

Non-geographic numbers were originally assigned the prefix 1. However, some of these services have been moved to other area codes.
  • 10xy, 100yy
  • 11…
  • 12xx-xxxxxxx…
  • 137-xxx xxxxxxx,
  • 15xx-xxxxxxx, 16x-xxxxxxx, 17x-xxxxxxx
  • 18xx-xxxxxxx…18xxxxxxx-xx
  • 180-xxxxxxx
  • 181-xxx-x…, 181-xxxx-x…
  • 19xxx
  • 198…, 199…
  • 31-x
  • 32-xxxxxxxxx
  • 700-xxxxxxxx
  • 800-xxxxxxx
  • 900-x-xxxxxx
  • 9009-xxxxxxx

    Emergency and network services

Network services are not dialed with the trunk prefix 0. They resemble local numbers that start with 11 but usually cannot be dialed after an area code.
  • 110 – Police
  • 112 – Fire brigade, ambulance, rescue services
  • 115 – Civil services ; requests are either answered directly or forwarded to the competent authority in the caller's region. The caller can access local government services and book appointments at government offices.
  • 116 xxx – Harmonised services of social value
  • 118 xx – Directory assistance
  • 19 222 – Non-emergency medical transports. This number is not an emergency number but a local number assigned uniformly in all geographic area codes. This requires dialling the area code from mobile phones or other non-geographic lines.

    History

Before German reunification, East Germany used country code 37. West Berlin was integrated into the West German telephone network, using the same country code of West Germany, with the area code 311, later changed to 030. Unlike West Germany, from which calls to East Berlin were made using the prefix 00372, calls from West Berlin required only the short code 0372. Conversely, those made to West Berlin from East Berlin only required the short code 849.
In 1992, two years after reunification, the telephone networks were merged under country code 49.
Geographic numbers in the New States were assigned area codes starting with 3, in some cases followed by the former East German area code or a code similar to it. Thus, Leipzig, for example, which had used East German domestic area code 41, was assigned the new area code 341 in the unified telephone system. On the other hand, some area codes were changed: for example, the small town of Zossen used to have East German area code 323, but the new area code is 3377. Area code 30, formerly used by West Berlin, was assigned to the entire reunified Berlin.
Withdrawing country code 37 freed the three-digit numbering block 37x for assignments. Several country were assigned such codes, for example: 370 for Lithuania, 374 for Armenia, 375 for Belarus, as well as some microstates whose telephone networks had formerly been integrated to those of surrounding larger countries.
The German telephone network became fully digital in 1997, allowing more flexible use of the numbering space.
On 1 January 1998, the Federal Network Agency became the numbering authority for telephone numbers in Germany.