Guide
Poste Restante
Using the service the right way
Poste Restante ("postlagernd" in German) is the oldest way to keep your home address to yourself. Deutsche Post offers it officially, it costs nothing and it needs no contract. Even so, it is widely misunderstood. Here is how it is meant to work and where it breaks down in everyday use.
Short answer
With Poste Restante, the sender does not ship your mail to your home but to a post office branch. It is held there for you for up to seven working days, so the sender never sees your home address. For ordinary letters, Deutsche Post even allows a code word or pseudonym instead of your name. The catch is in the execution: Not every branch knows the rules, parcels are not covered, and the service is not built to be a permanent address.
What Poste Restante is
Poste Restante means: The item is not delivered but kept at a specific branch until you collect it. The note "Postlagernd" on the envelope tells Deutsche Post exactly that. This is not a grey area. The service is explicitly part of what Deutsche Post offers.
For your privacy, this means: The sender writes the branch address on the item, not yours. Your real address therefore never ends up in the shop's customer database or with address brokers.
How to address a Poste Restante item
Below the name or code word goes the note "Postlagernd", followed by the branch address:
Postlagernd
Postfiliale, Musterstraße 1
10115 Berlin
Pick the branch in advance using the Deutsche Post branch finder (Postfinder) and ask briefly whether it accepts Poste Restante items. Small partner branches in supermarkets or kiosks in particular handle this very differently.
Anonymous, to whom?
This is worth a closer look, because Poste Restante can do more than most people think. According to Deutsche Post, ordinary letters may carry a code word or pseudonym instead of a name. If the branch handles the service the way Deutsche Post offers it, the sender does not know where you live and the post office does not know who you are.
Registered mail (Einschreiben) and cash on delivery (Nachnahme) are the exception. They require a real recipient name.
In practice, it still often goes wrong. Many counter staff are not aware of the code-word rule and ask for ID out of habit. If the letter carries a pseudonym, you may not get it handed over. So expect to explain the rule on the spot, or clear it with the branch beforehand.
Strengths and limits
- Official Deutsche Post service, free and without a contract
- Ready to use immediately, no registration
- Code word or pseudonym explicitly allowed for ordinary letters
- No customer account that could leak data
- Many branches do not know the rules and insist on ID
- Letters only. DHL can deliver parcels to a branch, but that requires a DHL customer account and photo ID at pickup. It has nothing to do with Poste Restante.
- Deutsche Post items only, no other carriers
- Pickup window of at most seven working days, after that the item is returned
- Abroad, Poste Restante is handled very inconsistently
Packstation or Poste Restante: Which one when?
Both methods are free and complement each other well. The Packstation is meant for DHL parcels, Poste Restante mainly for letters.
| DHL Packstation | Poste Restante | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | DHL parcels | Letters |
| Registration | Yes (Postnummer + ID) | No |
| Pseudonym | No | Yes, for ordinary letters |
| Other carriers | No | No |
| Pickup | App or code, contactless | At the counter |
When free is no longer enough
For individual items, Poste Restante is a good solution. If you need a permanent address that accepts letters and parcels from any sender, ProxyHub is the next step. We receive your mail, digitise it and forward it on request. You control everything through the portal, wherever you are. Start for free, cancel monthly, pay with Bitcoin.
Start for free See how it works