Modern CV (DE)

What is the German modern CV template?

This German modern CV template produces a clean, one or two-page resume in the current German application format. It uses the moderncv class with the banking or casual style — adjustable for your industry (banking for finance/legal, casual for tech/startups, classic for traditional fields).

The Sarmate template is pre-configured with German localization and compiles immediately.

When should you use this template?

• You're applying for a job in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland and want a clean, professional CV in LaTeX.
• You want to maintain multiple versions (German, English, industry-specific) — LaTeX sources are easier to maintain than Word docs with layout drift.
• You're from academia and want a CV with publication list and longer career history.

Step-by-step: your first CV

1. Pick style and color

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,sans]{moderncv}

\moderncvstyle{banking}    % or: classic, casual, oldstyle, fancy
\moderncvcolor{blue}        % or: black, burgundy, green, grey, orange, purple, red

Four main styles:

• banking — very formal, with horizontal line under header. For banks, consulting, law.
• classic — traditional, section headings on the left, content on the right. For traditional industries.
• casual — softer, photo top-left. For tech, marketing, creative roles.
• oldstyle — ornamental look. For very traditional fields or as a creative pick.

2. Personal details

\firstname{Anna}
\familyname{Müller}
\title{Senior Software Engineer}                  % optional
\address{Beispielstr.~12}{10115 Berlin}{Germany}
\phone[mobile]{+49~151~12345678}
\email{anna.mueller@example.com}
\homepage{www.anna-mueller.de}                    % optional
\social[linkedin]{anna-mueller}                   % optional
\social[github]{annamueller}                      % optional
\photo[64pt][0.4pt]{photo.png}                    % optional

Which fields you include depends on the country:

3. Work experience

\section{Berufserfahrung}

\cventry{2022--present}{Senior Software Engineer}{Beispiel GmbH}{Berlin}{}{
  Architected the order-management system. Led a team of 5 engineers.
  Migrated codebase from Python 2 to Python 3.
  \begin{itemize}
    \item Reduced API latency by 40\%
    \item Introduced CI/CD with GitLab
  \end{itemize}}

Format: \cventry{date}{role}{company}{city}{country}{description}. Concrete achievements (numbers, projects) are far more compelling than generic task descriptions.

4. Education

\section{Ausbildung}

\cventry{2017--2019}{M.Sc.\ Informatik}{TU München}{Munich}{GPA: 1.3}{
  Major in Machine Learning. Master's thesis on ``Federated Learning for
  Medical Imaging.''}

German grades (1.0 = best, 5.0 = worst) belong on the CV when good. For poor grades, omit them or emphasize the year.

5. Languages, skills, hobbies

\section{Sprachen}
\cvitemwithcomment{German}{native}{}
\cvitemwithcomment{English}{C1}{Fluent}
\cvitemwithcomment{French}{B2}{Conversational}

\section{Technische Kenntnisse}
\cvitem{Programming}{Python, Rust, Go, TypeScript}
\cvitem{ML frameworks}{PyTorch, JAX, scikit-learn}

For languages, use CEFR levels (A1 to C2), the European standard.

6. Publications (optional, academic)

\section{Publications}
\cvitem{2024}{Müller, A., Schmidt, M. ``Federated Learning at Scale.''
              \emph{NeurIPS}, 2024.}

Required for academic CVs. Skip for industry applications.

Common errors and how to fix them

Photo too big / small / off-center

Size controlled by \photo[64pt][0.4pt]{photo.png}. 64pt ≈ 22 mm height, second value is border width. For a classic application photo: [80pt][0pt].

CV overflows to page 2

Solutions: shorter descriptions per role, drop older entries (more than 10-15 years back is rarely relevant), or accept two pages — common for senior profiles.

Umlauts come out broken

Save the .tex file in UTF-8. Sarmate uses UTF-8 by default.

FAQ

One page or two?

Less than 10 years experience: aim for 1, max 2. Senior profiles (15+ years): 2 is normal. PhD/academic profiles: 3-5 with publications accepted.

Can I have multiple language versions in one file?

Yes with iflang conditionals. Easier to maintain two separate files (cv-de.tex, cv-en.tex).

How do I send the CV?

Always as PDF. Never .tex or Word — PDF guarantees consistent rendering at the recipient.

Going further

• moderncv on CTAN — documentation and source.
• moderncv on GitHub — current versions and issues.