Your personal Goethe Certificate
A certificate from the Goethe-Institut is an internationally accepted proof of your German language skills. It serves as proof of language skills that you may need in your job, especially when working in Germany. It is therefore important for our successful examinees to know when they can expect to receive their official Goethe Certificate.
When will I receive my Goethe certificate?
| Locations | A1 | A2 | B1 | B2 | C1 | C2* |
| Berlin | 2 working days | 2 working days | 1 week | 1 week | 1 week | 1 week |
| Bonn | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks |
| Bremen | 1 working day | – | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks |
| Dresden | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks |
| Düsseldorf | 1 week | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 4 weeks |
| Frankfurt | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks |
| Freiburg | 1 week | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 3 weeks |
| Göttingen | 1 working day | 1 working day | 1 week | 1 week | 1 week | 1 week |
| Hamburg | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 4 weeks | 4 weeks | 4 weeks | 4 weeks |
| Mannheim | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 4 weeks | 4 weeks | 4 weeks | 4 weeks |
| Munich | 3 working days | 3 working days | 4 working days | 4 working days | 5 working days | 5 working days |
| Schwäbisch Hall | 1 working day | 1 working day | 2 working days | 2 working days | 2 weekworking dayss | 2 working days |
* Special feature of the C2 exam: If you select a literature-related topic for Task 2 of the writing module, certificates will normally be available at all institutes six weeks after taking the examination.
The Großes Deutsches Sprach-Diplom takes some time
Being able to speak German is fantastic and even better if you can prove your skills with the internationally recognized Goethe-Institut examination certificate. Most of our exam candidates have taken a German course at the Goethe-Institut to be tested in one of the six language levels from A1 to C2. However, this is not a prerequisite for taking part in the examinations. On the other hand, the sole participation in the German course without the examination is not a proof of language skills. An examinee for the Goethe Certificate A1: Start Deutsch 1 usually has a good chance of obtaining his or her diploma quickly. On the other hand, if you want to achieve the Großes Deutsches Sprachdiplom, the proof of language skills for level C2, you usually have to be a bit more patient, because there is a lot of text to be read and corrected conscientiously. The Goethe-Institut always tries to keep the time between the examination and the issue of the certificate short. You can see these times in the table below and consider them in your choice of an examination location.