The CV in Germany: What Belongs in It in 2026 (and What Doesn't)

Few documents get overloaded as reliably as the CV: place of birth, primary school, marital status, three lines of hobbies — much of it is only there because “it has always been done that way”. Yet a lot has changed in Germany recently. This overview sorts every detail into three categories — belongs in, can go in, belongs out — and puts the current developments into perspective. (The step-by-step structure with all sections is covered in our guide to writing a CV.)

The big picture: in, maybe, out

Detail	Category	Reason
Name, phone, email, city	Belongs in	No contact details, no interview
Work experience with dates	Belongs in	The core of the CV
Education and degrees	Belongs in	Your highest qualification counts
Relevant skills (languages, software)	Belongs in	Directly tied to the requirements
Photo	Can go in	Optional since the AGG; trend towards omitting
Date of birth	Can go in	Optional; omitting prevents age discrimination
Hobbies	Can go in	Only if they say something useful
Driving licence	Can go in	Only if relevant to the role
Primary school	Belongs out	Meaningless once you hold a qualification
Religion, marital status, parents	Belongs out	Private matters, protected by the AGG
Salary expectations	Belongs out	Goes in the cover letter, if requested
Trivialities (“basic MS Word skills”)	Belongs out	Wastes space, signals a lack of substance

Mandatory details: the foundation

The mandatory list is short: full name, contact details, work experience, education, relevant skills. For contact details, a phone number, a professional email address and your city are enough — the full postal address has become dispensable now that correspondence is digital. For experience and education, list gap-free periods with month and year; what belongs inside each entry is covered in our structure guide.

Optional details: photo, date of birth, hobbies and more

Here it depends on your case — with clear tendencies:

• Photo: traditionally common in Germany, but optional since the AGG. If yes, then professional and recent. A growing number of companies explicitly request applications without photos.
• Date of birth: leaving it out is entirely legitimate and protects against unconscious age bias.
• Hobbies: only with narrative value. ❌ “Reading, travelling, music” → ✅ “Youth coach at a handball club (since 2019)” — one is filler, the other demonstrates responsibility.
• Driving licence: only if the role requires mobility (field sales, driving jobs, shift work without public transport).
• Volunteering and further training: almost always a plus if recent and aligned with your direction.

What has changed recently

Four developments shape the German CV in 2026:

1. Fewer personal details. The AGG made photo, age and marital status optional — anonymous applications never became the norm, but the expectation of “less private information” did.
2. AI screening. Many companies have software parse and pre-sort CVs. That rewards clear structure, standard headings and real text — and punishes text boxes and design gimmicks.
3. Mobile readability. Recruiters increasingly read applications on their phones. Fiddly three-column layouts fail there; a clear, airy document works.
4. The profile section has become standard. Three to four lines of positioning at the top answer the most important question — who are you professionally? — before anyone starts scrolling.

Special cases in brief

Example — a gap, named actively: 05/2024 – 01/2025 | Professional reorientation and further training Retraining towards IT support; completed an “IT fundamentals” certificate in parallel

• Gaps: from roughly three months, name them actively (reorientation, caregiving, training) instead of hiding behind year-only dates — as in the example above.
• Career change: the profile explains the switch, the bullets highlight transferable experience. More on this in our guide to CV examples.
• Lots of experience: cap the CV at two pages — positions older than about 15 years can be summarised or cut.
• Little experience: education at the top, internships and side jobs treated like real positions; one page is enough.

Trends, soberly assessed

Not everything sold as “modern” helps you. Video CVs and elaborately designed CVs remain niche formats for creative fields. Skill bars (“Excel: 80 %”) look contemporary but state nothing verifiable. QR codes to a portfolio are nice but no substitute for a clear skills section. The lasting improvements are unspectacular: a profile section, measurable results, clean structure, mobile readability — exactly what humans and software can both read.

The most common mistakes

1. Overloading with private details — marital status, religion and place of birth have no place in a CV
2. Primary school and ancient positions — once you hold a qualification, only the relevant career path counts
3. Filler hobbies with no message — every recruiter mentally crosses out “reading, travelling”
4. Including everything for fear of missing something — a CV is a selection, not an archive
5. Writing it once and never updating it — every application deserves a check for fit and currency

Checklist: your CV in 2026

• All mandatory details in: name, contact, experience, education, skills?
• Deliberate decision on photo and date of birth — rather than habit?
• Primary school, religion, marital status and filler hobbies removed?
• A profile section at the top that positions you in three lines?
• Structure readable on a phone and by software (no column tricks, real text)?
• Gaps named actively instead of concealed?

If you are unsure what applies to your situation while decluttering: our AI CV generator knows these rules, includes only the details that make sense from your profile — and lets you decide deliberately about photo and date of birth.