Category

Business in Germany

Business in GermanyEmployment Law GermanyGerman Citizenship and ImmigrationStarting or Expanding Business

Guide for UK Offshore Wind Contractors in Germany

Workforce, German Visa and AÜG Compliance | Checklist for UK Businesses Guest Article by Martin Halfmann, LL.M. | Employment Lawyer at Schlun & Elseven Germany's offshore wind buildout in the North Sea and Baltic Sea depends heavily on specialist contractors, and UK companies - turbine installers, cable-laying specialists, and marine crewing agencies among them - are regularly engaged on German projects. Offshore work brings an additional layer of complexity on top of the immigration and…
SE Legal
August 14, 2026
Business in GermanyEmployment Law GermanyGerman Labor Law

Staff Cuts in Germany – How to Avoid Legal Blunders

Dismissal of Employees in Germany: A Guide for Employers Business downsizing forces companies to take painful measures. To ensure that redundancies on operational grounds (betriebsbedingte Kündigung) survive the strict scrutiny by the German employment tribunal (Arbeitsgericht), employers in Germany must strictly adhere to a long list of formal and legal requirements. Even minor errors in the process can render redundancies invalid and will lead to costly severance payments or unfair dismissal proceedings. This guide takes…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
August 12, 2026
Business in GermanyBusiness Tax & Fiscal ObligationsEmployment Law GermanyGerman Labor LawGerman Tax Law

Posting Employees to Germany: Employment, Immigration and Social Security Risks

Checklist for UK Companies Posting Employees to Germany Guest Article by Martin Halfmann, LL.M. | Employment Lawyer at Schlun & Elseven A UK company sending an employee to Germany for a project, a client engagement, or market development work is not simply moving one person across a border. Three separate legal regimes apply at once - employment standards, immigration, and social security and tax - and each has its own rules, its own thresholds, and…
SE Legal
August 11, 2026
Business in GermanyBusiness Tax & Fiscal ObligationsGerman Labor Law

UK Companies Supplying Workers to Germany Need an AÜG Permit

Labour Leasing (Staff Augmentation) Licensing Requirements under German Employment Law Guest Article by Martin Halfmann, LL.M. | Employment Lawyer at Schlun & Elseven German clients increasingly look to UK-based contractors to fill short-term gaps in specialist trades, from construction to engineering to marine crew. What is often missed on the UK side is that supplying staff into a German operation can trigger a licensing requirement that has nothing to do with immigration law and everything…
SE Legal
August 11, 2026
Business in GermanyFamily LawGerman Citizenship and Immigration

Could You Be Entitled to German Citizenship?

A Guide for British Citizens with German Ancestry For many British citizens, the loss of EU freedom of movement after Brexit has prompted a closer look at family histories. If you have German ancestry, you might be among thousands of Britons who could reclaim German citizenship - and with it, full rights across the European Union. The path to German citizenship by descent has become significantly more accessible since June 2024, when Germany fundamentally reformed…
SE Legal
February 21, 2026
Business in Germany

Business development for English Solicitors who are looking for German clients

The law blog on English law in German language generates high end legal business for UK solicitors Launched only in October 2024, the expert law blog www.EnglischesRecht.de, which is the German translation of English law, created and owned by experienced law blogger and international lawyer Bernhard Schmeilzl, is already the #1 go to platform for anyone who searches the internet – in German – for information on English law or for an English lawyer, i.e.…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
May 19, 2025
Business in GermanyConveyancing GermanyEstate PanningFamily LawGerman Corporate LawGerman ProbateGerman Real Estate LawGerman Succession & Inheritance LawGerman Tax LawProperty in GermanyWills and Succession Planning

How to transfer German property to your children or grandchildren tax free

Estate planning in Germany by way of a property management partnership (vermögensverwaltende Personengesellschaft, Familiengesellschaft) If you own (or have inherited) property in Germany, it makes sense from a German tax mitigation perspective to transfer some or all of it to your children or grandchildren during your lifetime. In fact, as early on as possible. Because this allows you to take advantage of the high German gift and inheritance tax allowances multiple times. One particularly efficient…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
January 7, 2025
Business in GermanyCivil actionDebt collectionGoing to courtInternational LitigationLitigation in Germany

Costs of Debt Collection in Germany

Pre-action letter and issuing civil claim against debtor in Germany If you have a claim against a person or a business who are based in Germany and who are unwilling to pay, you will in many cases have to take that debtor to court in Germany, unless you have been able to agree your own country as place of jurisdiction in a contract (which is not quite that easy to do, especially in consumer contracts).…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
May 17, 2024
Business in GermanyGerman Labor LawGerman Law

Termination of Employees during Parental Leave in Germany

Can an Employee in Germany be let off while in parental leave? German labour law is very protective of employees. Every business with more than 10 full time employees on the payroll must be aware of the specific German employee protention rules (Kündigungsschutzgesetz). For details see this post: https://www.crosschannellawyers.co.uk/german-labor-law-the-basics-of-employee-protection-against-dismissal/   Special protection of employees during parental leave Regardless of the number of employees, there are additional special German laws protecting all parents who are on…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
November 17, 2023
Business in GermanyCivil actionGerman Corporate LawGerman Labor LawGerman LawGerman ProbateGerman Succession & Inheritance Law

Less Cricket. More Baseball!

GrafLegal creates US-German Legal Desk Too much cricket, not enough baseball! That's essentially what our marketing people told us after finding that 65% of all posts on our various law blogs deal with UK-German legal issues, only 35% with USA related topics. We may just have gone a bit too much Downton Abbey on everyone. Enough of that, let's balance the scales! The German law firm for US-German legal matters To start off our US…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
March 29, 2022