Vorwahl

The word Vorwahl refers to the area code (also known as STD code) of a telephone number.

Area codes in Germany area structured so that it is possible to roughly guess which part of the country someone lives in by their telephone number.

The other part of the number is called the Rufnummer.  In the days of dialling phone numbers by hand people left the Vorwahl off the number of they were calling someone within the same Vorwahlbereich, but these days many people program the numbers into their phones with the area code anyway.  This saves re-programming when you move, and has also become common practise as mobile phones require the area code all the time.

To call another country, you use the internationale Vorwahl, which basically means putting 00 in front of the country code (eg. 44 for the UK).

The term Vorwahl can also refer to a number dialled in an office environment to obtain an outside line.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file | Subscribe to the podcast

 

Content not available.
Please allow cookies by clicking Accept on the banner
About Graham

Graham Tappenden is a British ex-pat who first came to Germany as a placement student in 1993, returning in 1995 to live there permanently. He has been writing for AllThingsGerman.net since 2006. When not writing blog posts or freelancing for the Oberurseler Woche and other publications he works as a self-employed IT consultant solving computer problems and designing websites. In 2016 he gained German citizenship.

Speak Your Mind

*

Please click on ACCEPT to give us permission to set cookies [more information]

This website uses cookies to give you the best browsing experience possible. Cookies are small text files that are stored by the web browser on your computer. Most of the cookies that we use are so-called “Session cookies”. These are automatically deleted after your visit. The cookies do not damage your computer system or contain viruses. Please read our privacy information page for more details or to revoke permission.

Close