Writing German Addresses
Something as simple as writing a letter can't be that much different from how we do it in the U.S., can it be? Well, no, not terribly off, but enough that you can create a minor headache for yourself or the Deutsche Post work who has to process your package or card.
A standard U.S. address, with some variations for P.O. boxes, or for mailboxes in certain apartment buildings, are typically done in some variation of:
Mr/Ms. Person McPerson
123 PlaceTheyLive Street
City, State [Zip Code]
U.S.A.
In Germany, the order of the parts of the address are largely inverted to:
Herr/Frau Person McPerson
PlaceTheyLive Straße 123
[Zip Code] City
DE
with the state omitted from the address entirely. In the case of P.O. boxes, in the place of the city, you would write Postfach (P.O. box, shown above), the same way that you would for an American one. If you are filling out a form, you'll see spaces for the street (Straße), city (Ort), and zip code (PLZ). The first and last name boxes, if they are separated, are written as Name (last name) and Vorname (first name; literally: pre-name).