notice
noun · Mitteilung
Mitteilung for the communication, Kündigungsfrist for the period, Kenntnis for what someone is on notice of. And the mechanics matter more than the noun, German notices work on receipt, § 130 BGB, dispatch achieves nothing by itself, so the Notices clause is the parties’ answer to the Zugangsrisiko, not boilerplate.
Which translation, when
Why
Notice does three jobs and German splits them without mercy. The letter is die Mitteilung, and its one hard rule is timing, empfangsbedürftige Willenserklärungen become effective on Zugang, § 130 Abs. 1 BGB, receipt, not dispatch, the sender carries the Zugangsrisiko, and the English posting instinct, bred by the mailbox rule for acceptances, has no German footing, which is precisely why German Notices clauses negotiate delivery fictions and addresses with such care. The period is die Kündigungsfrist, terminate on three months’ notice is mit einer Frist von drei Monaten kündigen, often tied to a date, zum Monatsende, zum Quartalsende, with statutory ladders in employment, § 622 BGB. And the knowledge sense is a standard, not a noun, on notice of a defect is kannte oder kennen musste, the formula § 122 Abs. 2 BGB defines, so constructive notice arrives in German as attributed knowledge, and konstruktive Kenntnis is residue German doctrine never adopted.
Typical mistakes
- Dreimonatige Ankündigung for three months’ notice misses the institution, the period is die Kündigungsfrist, and the sentence is mit einer Frist von drei Monaten kündigen.
- Dispatch is not arrival, § 130 BGB counts receipt, so a notice posted on the last day is in German law usually a notice given too late, and the clause must say otherwise if dispatch is meant to suffice.
- Constructive notice translates as a standard, kannte oder kennen musste, § 122 Abs. 2 BGB, and konstruktive Kenntnis is residue German doctrine does not use.
What matters
Termination mechanics live on the two halves: terminate by three months’ written notice reads mit einer Frist von drei Monaten schriftlich kündigen, and the letter itself is wirksam erst mit Zugang, § 130 BGB. The version built on announcements and dispatch dates has the right words in the wrong machine, and the counterparty’s lawyer will check the Zugang, not the postmark.
What the machine misses
Notice flattens into a single announcement word in machine output whatever job it was doing, the period, the letter or the knowledge. Three months’ notice arrives as a three-month announcement, the Kündigungsfrist has left the sentence, and the one rule that decides real disputes, that German notices count from receipt and not from dispatch, is exactly the kind of mechanics no word swap carries.
Examples
| three months’ notice | eine Kündigungsfrist von drei Monaten |
| to give notice of defects | Mängel anzeigen |
| the Notices clause | die Mitteilungsklausel |
| until receipt of the notice | bis zum Zugang der Mitteilung |