Which Dog Breeds Can't Be Imported Into Germany?

Most guides list Germany’s banned dog breeds as one flat list — Pit Bull, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Bull Terrier — and stop there. That’s incomplete, and the gap is exactly where owners get into trouble. For where this fits into the rest of the requirements, see the Germany pet shipping guide.

German law actually runs two separate rules at once, and they behave nothing alike. One is a federal ban that closes every route to moving in permanently, leaving only a few narrow exceptions such as a short visit. The other is a patchwork of state rules that varies by where the dog will actually live — and, unlike the federal ban, it includes a legal path to moving in for good. Confusing the two is the single most common way a shipment gets planned around an exception that was never available to that dog in the first place. This breed check sits outside the rest of the requirements covered in the Germany pet import law guide — meeting every other requirement doesn’t override a breed restriction.

The Two Rules Everyone Mixes Up

The source is one law — the Gesetz zur Beschränkung des Verbringens oder der Einfuhr gefährlicher Hunde in das Inland (HundVerbrEinfG) — but its Section 2 splits into two sentences that create two different categories.

Not just a wording difference — Satz 2 dogs can move to Germany permanently, Satz 1 dogs can’t. Everything below explains why.

Satz 1: The Four Breeds That Can’t Move to Germany

Satz 1 names four breeds and their crosses, in the federal law text: Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and Bull Terrier. The regulation implementing this ban, the Hundeverbringungs- und -einfuhrverordnung (HundVerbrEinfVO), carves out exceptions in the same section — a short stay of up to four weeks, a permanent move if the dog is already legally kept abroad. Only one of them reaches these four breeds.

The short-stay rule in the implementing regulation covers every dog under § 2 Abs. 1, Satz 1 included: a dog travelling with someone who doesn’t live in Germany can come in for up to four weeks. The permanent-move rule is written only for dogs “im Sinne des § 2 Abs. 1 Satz 2” — Satz 2 dogs. In practice, a Pit Bull or a Staffordshire Bull Terrier can visit with a non-resident owner for up to four weeks, but has no legal route to moving to Germany for good. (The regulation also exempts service and assistance dogs, and dogs already legally kept in Germany coming home from a trip.) There is no paperwork that fixes this, and no state makes an exception for a federal ban.

Satz 2: Breeds Each State Decides For Itself

Satz 2 covers “breeds of further races… for which a danger is presumed under the regulations of the state where the dog is to be permanently kept.” That single clause is why Germany’s breed rules feel inconsistent — because they are, by design. Sixteen states, sixteen separate lists, and the list that matters is the one for wherever the dog will actually live, not where it lands.

Three states — Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia, and Lower Saxony — keep no breed list at all. Four states — Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg, and North Rhine-Westphalia — split their lists into two tiers: dogs presumed dangerous outright, and dogs presumed dangerous but able to clear that presumption with a temperament test.

What Bavaria and Hesse Actually Require

Bavaria and Hesse matter more than most states for this route, since Munich and Frankfurt are the two main entry airports for pets arriving from Vietnam.

Bavaria’s Category 1 (no way to disprove danger) lists the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Bandog, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and Tosa Inu — three of those already sit on the federal Satz 1 ban, listed again at state level. Category 2, which can be cleared with a passed temperament test, includes the Alano, American Bulldog, Bullmastiff, Cane Corso, Dogo Argentino, and Rottweiler. A Category 1 dog in Bavaria needs a Halte-Erlaubnis — a state holding permit — before the owner can legally keep it there.

Hesse runs a single list rather than two tiers: American Bulldog, Pitbull, American Staffordshire Terrier, Bull Terrier, Dogo Argentino, Kangal, Caucasian Shepherd, and Rottweiler. The presence of the Kangal here is easy to miss — it doesn’t appear on most other states’ lists.

The Two Legal Ways In For Satz 2 Dogs

This is where Satz 2 earns its separate treatment. The HundVerbrEinfVO gives owners two routes, and knowing which one applies changes how far in advance to start planning.

A stay of up to four weeks: a Satz 2 dog — like a Satz 1 dog — can enter temporarily if it travels with someone who isn’t a German resident and the stay lasts no more than four weeks. An extension is possible if leaving on time would cause real hardship, but that’s an exception to the exception — not something to plan around by default.

A permanent move: a Satz 2 dog can also enter for good, if the accompanying owner can prove the dog is legally kept in another country. Neither the law nor the regulation spells out exactly which documents satisfy that proof — in practice, this means confirming the requirement directly with the destination state’s Ordnungsamt before finalizing travel dates, not after.

Landing in either category doesn’t end the paperwork. Once inside Germany, a Satz 2 dog on the destination state’s own list still needs that state’s holding permit, plus the usual package — proof of insurance, a passed temperament test where required, and in most states, a competency certificate (Sachkunde) for the owner.

Before You Start Preparing Paperwork

Three checks, in this order, before booking anything:

• Confirm the breed isn’t one of the four Satz 1 breeds — if it is and the dog is moving to Germany, no amount of preparation changes the outcome.
• Look up the destination state’s list, not a generic “Germany” list — a Rottweiler is unrestricted in Berlin and requires a permit in Munich.
• If the breed is on that state’s list, contact the local Ordnungsamt early to confirm what proves the dog is already legally owned, well before a rabies titer test schedule locks in a flight date. Breed status gets checked again at the border alongside every other document, so consistency matters more than any single piece of paperwork.

The distinction between these two rules is confirmed directly against the federal law text and its implementing regulation, not a secondhand summary — a detail worth checking twice, since many summaries either treat the federal ban as absolute or assume a Satz 1 dog can move in the way a Satz 2 dog can. Neither is right: the four-week stay is open to both groups, the permanent move only to Satz 2 — and for a Satz 1 dog relocating to Germany, that gap is not a paperwork problem to solve. It’s the outcome.

Owners relocating permanently for work or family reasons should also check the visa-specific guide to moving to Germany with pets, where breed status intersects directly with residence permit timing.