Formal writing

A formal German message has a shape, and following it is most of the work. Four moves, in this order, every time.

Why you are writing → what happened → what you want → a closing line. Never start with the demand.

The phrases worth learning as fixed blocks, because they do the politeness for you:

• Ich wende mich an Sie, weil ich seit zwei Wochen keine Antwort bekommen habe.

  I am contacting you because I have had no answer for two weeks.

  the standard formal opening

• Ich möchte mich über die Lieferung beschweren.

  I would like to complain about the delivery.

  sich beschweren über + Akkusativ

• Ich wäre Ihnen dankbar, wenn Sie mir bis Freitag antworten könnten.

  I would be grateful if you could reply to me by Friday.

  the politest way to put a deadline on someone

• Aus diesem Grund bitte ich Sie um eine Rückerstattung.

  For this reason I am asking you for a refund.

  Aus diesem Grund takes position 1, so the verb follows

• Leider muss ich Ihnen mitteilen, dass ich den Termin absagen muss.

  Unfortunately I have to inform you that I must cancel the appointment.

  for bad news you are delivering

Now the tone. Formal does not mean soft. A good complaint is firm: it says what went wrong, what you want, and by when — it simply does so politely.

Keep the deadline and the request concrete. Politeness is in the wording, not in being vague about what you want.

One more situation worth practising: following up when nobody has replied. The trick is to state the facts without accusing anyone.

• Am 12. Mai habe ich Ihnen geschrieben, bisher aber keine Antwort erhalten.

  On 12 May I wrote to you, but so far I have had no reply.

  facts and dates, no accusation

• Vermutlich ist meine E-Mail untergegangen.

  My email has presumably got lost.

  gives the reader a way out — very German, and it works