German citation style: using footnotes correctly

Reviewed by Benjamin Lohrer, editor at corrected.eu · Updated: 11 August 2026

German citation style with footnotes, step by step

The German citation style is the classic footnote system you will meet mostly in the humanities and cultural studies, in history, theology, law and sometimes in German studies. Instead of a bracket in the running text, you add a superscript number, and the full source reference appears in a footnote at the bottom of the page (see setting footnotes correctly). That sounds like more work, but it has two advantages: the text reads smoothly, and a footnote can also hold short comments that would interrupt the main text. Below we show how the full reference, the short reference and abbreviations such as vgl. and ebd. work.

What is the German citation style and when do you need it?

The German citation style is not a style with a central manual. It is a pragmatic convention that became established in German-speaking countries. Unlike Harvard or APA, it uses superscript numerals in the text and a footnote at the foot of the page. The footnote contains the source reference: complete the first time, in short form for every later mention.

It is common in subjects where the source itself matters, for example when you cite a particular edition or a historical find. In history, theology, classical philology and law it is often the only accepted form. In German studies, Romance studies, political science and sociology it is also frequently required, often as an alternative to Harvard. Which variant applies at your chair is stated in the module handbook or a PDF style guide. If in doubt, ask your supervisor: nothing is more annoying than reformatting two hundred footnotes at the last minute.

If you are used to Harvard or APA, think of it this way: the information is the same (author, year, title, place, page), but it moves from brackets in the text to a note at the bottom of the page. Our guide to Harvard referencing and the APA 7 guide show the in-text alternatives.

Full reference in the footnote: the first mention

The first mention of a source is always the full reference. It contains everything a reader needs to find the source: surname, first name (or initial), title, subtitle, edition, place of publication, year of publication and page number.

The order of the elements is not identical in every chair's style guide. Some require the subtitle after a colon, others after a full stop; some write "3. Auflage", others abbreviate to "3. Aufl." (3rd edition). What matters is that you choose one form and keep to it consistently. Formal consistency is mentioned in almost every assessment, and examiners deduct marks when it is missing.

Short reference from the second mention

As soon as a source appears a second time in your work, a short reference is enough: surname, year of publication, page number. This applies regardless of how many pages lie in between.

Some chairs require a shortened title instead of the year: "Schmidt: Learning with Feeling, S. 53." That is the older, more classical variant and is rarely used today. The short reference with a year matches all other author-year systems, which makes switching easier in an emergency.

"Vgl." before paraphrases: required or optional?

The hallmark of the German citation style is "Vgl." (vergleiche, "cf.") before every paraphrase. It tells the reader: this is a reworded reproduction, not a direct quotation. For a direct quotation (taken word for word, in quotation marks), "Vgl." is left out, because the quotation marks already show that it is verbatim.

Some chairs also require "Vgl." for direct quotations. That is redundant in content but not a formal error. The important point is again consistency: if you write "Vgl." in the first ten footnotes and not in the next ten, you risk a deduction for formal inconsistency.

Using "ebd." and "a.a.O." correctly

If you cite the same source in two consecutive footnotes, you can save the short reference and write "ebd." (ebenda, "ibid."). "Ebd." means "same title, same place". If the page changes, write "ebd., S. 48".

The older "a.a.O." (am angegebenen Ort, "loc. cit.") is hardly used today. It means: same author, same work, somewhere further back in the text. Because readers then have to leaf back to find out which work is meant, it is regarded as needlessly awkward. If in doubt, write a short reference instead of "a.a.O.".

Citing a book (monograph)

A monograph is a self-contained work by one or more authors. In the full reference you give surname, first name, title, subtitle, edition (from the second onwards), place of publication, year of publication and page number.

If you give no edition, readers assume the first edition. For translations, some guides also name the translator: "… aus dem Englischen von Maria Müller, Weinheim 2022" (translated from English by Maria Müller). This matters mainly in translation studies and comparative literature.

Book chapters and edited volumes

An edited volume contains contributions by several authors, and each contribution is a chapter of its own. If you cite only one chapter: chapter author, chapter title, "in:", editor (Hrsg.), title of the volume, place and year, page number.

"Hier S. 115" ("here p. 115") marks the exact page of your reference within the page range of the chapter. That is cleaner than "S. 115" alone and makes spot checks easier. For two or three editors, all are named; for more than three, "Müller, Petra u. a. (Hrsg.)" is enough.

Citing a journal article

Journal articles have a slightly different structure: author, title, "in:", journal name in italics, volume, issue, year of publication, page number.

For two authors, the German citation style usually joins them with a slash ("Becker/Klein"). For three or more authors, "u. a." (und andere) is the standard, not "et al.", which belongs more to English-language styles. Most chair style guides now require DOIs where available, but they go in the bibliography, not in the footnote.

Citing a web source

Web sources are treated much as in Harvard: author (a person or an institution), title, URL, date accessed. The access date is mandatory because online content can change.

If the page shows no date, write "o. J." (ohne Jahr, "n.d."), but in an academic work that should be a rare exception. Sources with neither author nor year are generally not citable and do not belong in a bachelor's thesis. See also our bachelor's thesis tips.

ChatGPT and AI sources in the German citation style

There is no official rule yet. Most guides follow APA logic translated into the German format: provider as author, date, model name in italics, version, platform URL, access date.

Important: an AI answer does not replace an academic source. ChatGPT regularly invents studies, authors and page numbers. If you rely on an AI answer for content, you must verify the reference against real literature. To be on the safe side, use an AI detector before submission, because some chairs now scan for AI traces themselves.

The bibliography at the end

Even if all source details are in the footnotes, you still need a complete bibliography at the end. It is sorted alphabetically by surname and, for several works by the same author, chronologically (oldest first). Unlike in the footnotes, the page number is omitted: it appears only in the footnote, because it refers to the specific passage.

Some guides require the bibliography to be divided by type of source: primary sources, secondary literature, web sources and, where relevant, legal texts. In history and law this is standard. Check your chair's style guide.

Word tips for footnotes

Word inserts footnotes automatically via "References → Insert Footnote" (or Ctrl+Alt+F). Important: the numbering runs continuously through the whole work, not per chapter. Set this under "Footnote and Endnote → Numbering → Continuous".

Three points that often come up in editing: (1) footnote marks come after the full stop at the end of a sentence, not before it. (2) If the footnote refers to a single term in the sentence, the mark goes directly behind that word, not at the end of the sentence. (3) Several footnotes at the same sentence end are combined into one, separated by a semicolon: "¹ Vgl. Schmidt 2022, S. 47; vgl. Müller 2021, S. 12."

Common mistakes in the German citation style

From our editing practice we see four classics:

• Missing full reference: the source appears straight away as a short reference, without having been given in full before.
• "Ebd." after a page change without a page number, which points unclearly to the original page.
• Inconsistent use of "Vgl.": sometimes yes, sometimes no.
• Footnote mark before the full stop instead of after it (the Word default, but wrong in the German citation style).

For more typical pitfalls, read about the bachelor's thesis and the master's thesis. The formal consistency of all footnotes and the comparison with the bibliography are exactly the points a professional editing service takes over, which saves hours of tedious spot checks before submission.

Frequently asked questions about the German citation style