Cancelling a contract

Right now: the four lines you send today

ShortcutA Kündigung letter lives or dies on two things: which contract (Vertragsnummer or Kundennummer) and when (zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt). The rest is politeness.

If you want out of a contract, write these four lines and send them today. Waiting for perfect German costs far more than missing the date. When you cancel a contract, late and flawless always loses to early and simple.

The parts every letter must have

The company doesn’t know you; it knows your number. A Kündigung is rarely rejected for “bad German” — it gets stuck because nobody can tell which contract it is about.

• Sender: your name and full address — identical to the one in the contract.
• Recipient: the company’s name and address. It is printed on the invoice.
• Place and date: Köln, 18.08.2026 — top right.
• Number: Kundennummer or Vertragsnummer. If you have both, write both.
• The cancelling sentence: hiermit kündige ich … — not “I want to”, but straight “I cancel”.
• Confirmation request: Bitte bestätigen Sie …
• Signature: handwritten on paper; in an email, your full name underneath.

• Hiermit kündige ich meinen Vertrag mit der Kundennummer 123456. I hereby cancel my contract with customer number 123456. main sentence · put the number inside it
• Sollte eine Kündigung zu diesem Termin nicht möglich sein, kündige ich hilfsweise zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt. If cancelling for this date isn’t possible, I cancel as a fallback for the earliest possible date. the sentence that saves you if you calculate the date wrong
• Bitte bestätigen Sie mir den Eingang der Kündigung und das genaue Vertragsende schriftlich. Please confirm in writing that you received the cancellation and the exact end date of the contract. confirmation request
• Hiermit widerrufe ich mein SEPA-Lastschriftmandat mit Wirkung zum Vertragsende. I hereby revoke my SEPA direct-debit mandate, effective from the end of the contract. tie it to the end date — stop the debit early and it shows up as debt

Abbreviations you will see in the letter and in the reply: KD-Nr. = Kundennummer · Vertrags-Nr. = contract number · z. Hd. = zu Händen (“for the attention of”) · i. A. = im Auftrag (the signer signs on behalf of the company) · MfG = Mit freundlichen Grüßen. Don’t use abbreviations yourself, but recognise them when you read them.

You already write this way in English

You have probably written to a phone company or a gym: “I am writing to give notice that I wish to terminate my membership, number …, in accordance with the notice period.” The German letter is the same skeleton — even shorter. You can match the formal English words almost one to one.

Two tools of formal German: hiermit and Passiv

hiermit takes the first slot of the sentence; because of German’s iron rule, the verb goes into slot two and the subject drops behind it. That is why you will never see hiermit ich kündige in a letter.

The second tool is Passiv. When a company writes to you, it doesn’t say who does it — only what happens. Use Passiv when you explain rules in your own letter, too, and the tone turns formal at once.

A small distinction that can be expensive: Der Vertrag wird gekündigt. = the cancellation is happening. Der Vertrag ist gekündigt. = it has happened, that is the state now. On the phone, ask “Ist mein Vertrag jetzt gekündigt?” — that asks about the result, and that is the right question.

fristgerecht · fristlos · Widerruf

Three different rights, three different words. Picking the wrong one usually comes back as “you had no such right”. English just says “cancel” for all of them; German doesn’t.

• Hiermit kündige ich fristlos aus wichtigem Grund. Hilfsweise kündige ich fristgerecht zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt. I hereby cancel with immediate effect for good cause. As a fallback, I cancel with due notice for the earliest possible date. the safe pattern that uses both rights in one letter
• Ich mache von meinem Sonderkündigungsrecht Gebrauch. I am making use of my special right of cancellation. when the price goes up or the service can’t be provided
• Die 14-tägige Widerrufsfrist ist noch nicht abgelaufen. The 14-day withdrawal period has not yet expired. sentence to add to a Widerruf letter

A common surprise: a contract you signed in person at the gym has no 14-day Widerruf — the right of withdrawal mainly covers contracts made at a distance (internet, phone) or at the door / away from business premises. If you signed at the gym, your only way out is a Kündigung.

Three places where people go wrong

The part nobody tells you: contracts renew themselves

A textbook teaches you the verb kündigen; it doesn’t teach you that the contract quietly extends. This is exactly where money disappears in Germany: if you do nothing, the contract simply continues. Nobody has to send you a reminder that “your term is running out”.

If you miss the date, it isn’t the end of the world, but write immediately. Companies usually don’t bin a late cancellation; they note it for a later date. The sentence you will see in the reply is: Wir haben Ihre Kündigung zum nächstmöglichen Termin vorgemerkt. — “We have noted your cancellation for the earliest possible date.” Read that date and put it in your calendar; you keep paying until then.

The second unspoken thing: the moment you cancel, your phone rings. The person on the other end has the job of keeping you, and the conversation almost always goes the same way:

Never say “Ja, schicken Sie mir mal ein Angebot” in this call. Accepting an offer often means a new contract, and the term starts from zero. Even if you’re interested, leave your cancellation in force first and ask for the offer in writing.

Three more things nobody mentions up front: (1) A rental contract is a different world — email doesn’t count there; the law requires Schriftform: paper, handwritten signature, delivered to the landlord. The tenant’s notice period is normally three months, and it starts counting for that month if given within the first three working days of the month. (2) Most other contracts only need Textform — so email is valid; even if the contract says “by letter only”, that condition is void in most consumer contracts. (3) Moving house alone doesn’t get you out of a gym contract — German courts don’t treat moving as a special reason to cancel; but health problems or a gym that can’t provide its service are different.

Car insurance has a hard calendar: the normal cancellation date for an annual policy is 30 November (one month before a term ending 31 December). If the premium goes up, you get a Sonderkündigungsrecht — use that word exactly in your letter.

What to do this week

This topic doesn’t stick by memorising, it sticks by opening your files in one evening. You do it once and it earns you money for years:

• List all the subscriptions you pay for (phone, internet, gym, insurance, streaming). Open the last three months of your bank account and mark the direct debits.
• For each one, find a single thing: when does the Mindestlaufzeit end, and how many months is the Kündigungsfrist? Search the contract PDF for those two words.
• Set a phone alarm: end date minus four months. Call the alarm “Kündigung schreiben”.
• Write one template letter and save it — the only things that change are the company name, number and date. The main sentence stays fixed: Hiermit kündige ich meinen Vertrag mit der Kundennummer …, fristgerecht zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt.
• Say these three sentences out loud three times — you will need them on the phone: Bis wann muss die Kündigung bei Ihnen eingehen? · Wann endet meine Mindestlaufzeit? · Ich bleibe bei meiner Kündigung.

Sending the letter isn’t the end: if no confirmation arrives, treat it as not cancelled. If no Bestätigung comes within ten days, write one line: Ich habe am 18.08.2026 gekündigt und bitte um eine schriftliche Bestätigung mit dem genauen Vertragsende.

If you want to go deeper into the grammar of formal sentences, Passiv and Konjunktiv II come next — the patterns that soften a request in a letter come from there.