Getting DHL Packages Before You Have a German Phone Number or Address

The Official Rule

DHL’s Packstation network, the self-service parcel lockers found all over Munich, is genuinely useful once you’re set up, but getting set up requires two things a lot of newly arrived families don’t have yet: a German mobile phone number and a German address. Registration itself is free, but both pieces are needed before DHL will issue you a Postnummer (customer number) and let you receive packages at a locker.

Since 7 July 2025, there’s a partial workaround. DHL began piloting registration-free Packstation pickup, letting customers receive packages without an account at all, but only for orders placed through participating online retailers at checkout. The pilot launched with roughly 20 merchants, including CEWE, Mosaik Tree GmbH, FarbenFux.de, and BC GmbH, with DHL planning to expand the list over the following months. The mechanism is simple: you choose a Packstation address at checkout on a participating shop, and once DHL delivers the parcel, you get a pickup code by email, either scanned directly at a screen-equipped Packstation or entered through the Post & DHL app at an app-only locker. It’s a real option, but it only covers shopping done through those specific retailers, not a package a friend or family member mails to you independently.

Full registration, once you have both a German number and address, runs through DHL’s own site and needs identity verification. There are two routes: POSTIDENT, where you confirm your identity in person, commonly at a post office counter or through a video call, which typically finishes within minutes to a day, or AdressTAN, where DHL mails a confirmation code to your registered address, a route that takes a few days simply because it depends on regular post arriving. Once verified, you get a personal Postnummer, and addressing a package to a Packstation follows a specific format: your name, the Postnummer in the address addition field, “Packstation” plus the three-digit station number in the street and house number fields, then the postal code and city.

If neither the pilot nor full registration is realistic yet, paid mailbox services like Mail Boxes Etc offer a practical bridge. You get an address you can use immediately, no German phone number required, and pay a small per-package handling fee, commonly cited around 1 to 2 euros. It’s not free, but it removes the chicken-and-egg problem entirely while you’re still working through Anmeldung and the rest of your first-weeks paperwork.

What Real People Say

This section draws on German-language forum discussions (gutefrage.net) covering the same friction point.

The most common version of this question, asked repeatedly in different forms, comes from people living near a German border or newly arrived, wanting to know if a Packstation account is even possible without being a long-term resident. The consistent answer across these threads is that the requirement is real and not a technicality to work around casually: a German mobile number and address are both needed, and the workarounds people actually use are either borrowing a trusted friend’s address and account, or paying for a mailbox service in the meantime. Nobody in these threads describes a reliable way to skip the requirement entirely for a personal Packstation account, which lines up with what DHL’s own registration page says.

Step by Step

1. Check whether the shop you’re ordering from participates in DHL’s registration-free pilot. If it does, you can choose a Packstation at checkout with no account needed at all, at least for that order.
2. If you already have a German number but not yet a permanent address, some people use a temporary or friend’s address for AdressTAN while sorting out their own Anmeldung, worth asking whoever hosts you if a letter can arrive in your name.
3. Once your Anmeldung is done and you have both a German number and address, register on DHL’s own site and choose POSTIDENT if you want to start using a Packstation within a day rather than waiting on a letter.
4. If you need to receive packages before either of those pieces exists, look into a paid mailbox service like Mail Boxes Etc as a bridge, budget roughly 1 to 2 euros per package.
5. Once registered, save your Postnummer somewhere easy to find. You’ll need to give it out for every Packstation delivery, and the address format (name, Postnummer, “Packstation” plus station number, postal code, city) is specific enough that a saved template saves real time.