What is the difference between "Anschrift" and "Adresse"? Both mean "address". Some use "Anschrift" as delivery address, like "Lieferadresse".


In addition to guidot's answer:

Adresse refers to a location or a residential address. If you go to a person's/company's address, you will find a building where the person/company resides. (Addendum for O.R.Mapper's comment: the same is true for the address-types you state. EMail-addresses, IP-addresses, memory addresses all refer to one "location" - a person, a server, a position in memory)

Anschrift doesn't necessarily have to refer to a location, but merely tells you where you can send written mail so that the receiver can receive it. Anschrift can also refer to a PO box or similar.

Also, Anschrift and Adresse may be different. For example, many insurance companies have local offices. I can go there. They have an address. But all correspondence will be sent to/from the Anschrift, which is most of the time the address where the company resides.

Addendum for O.R.Mapper's comment:

An Adresse is a one-to-one relation. Every place has exactly one address (note: place, not person or company). So when a person or a company branch moves into a building, that building has exactly one Adresse.

Especially companies sometimes have different branches in different cities and one headquarter. Each of these branches of course has a distinct Adresse. Most of the time, however, you will only find the Anschrift and all mail will be redirected internally.

So you could say that Anschrift this is a one-to-many relation.

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    So as I understood Anschrift means company's registration address (and where it resides if the Adresse is the same). And Adresse is where the company resides/operates. And I feel that Anschrift is used in more official language. Am I right? Nov 22 '16 at 16:33
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    I'd say that Adresse is the residential address, whereas Anschrift is the postal address. Nov 22 '16 at 18:44
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    I think "Anschrift can be a 'virtual place'." is badly worded, given that Adresse is used for all kinds of virtual things (Website-Adresse, E-Mail-Adresse, Speicheradresse (also virtual ones that are mapped later on ...), etc.), whereas Anschrift is strictly limited to an address usable for physical mail (or visits). Nov 22 '16 at 22:15
  • @O.R.Mapper I wonder whom you want to visit when the Anschrift is a PO box. I modified my answer anyway. Nov 23 '16 at 8:58

They are practically synonymous, Anschrift having a German etymology and Adresse being a loanword as the more international choice. Note that Adresse is more flexible, since I never heard eMail-Anschrift but eMail-Adresse is quite common. On business cards you may also read Besuchsadresse (visting address), but not Besuchsanschrift, since Anschrift means somewhere to write to, and is inappropriate for a visit.

Summary: it is sufficient to understand Anschrift as synoym, but I would recommend to use Adresse everywhere.

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    The last sentence doesn't really give good advice. It depends if you want to actually visit somebody or write there. For example: I can go to my health insurance office and talk to somebody. If I ask them for the Anschrift, I will be provided an address in Hamburg. If I ask them for the Adresse, I'd get the address for the office in my town. Nov 22 '16 at 15:20
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    "They are fully synonymous" seems to be directly contradicted by "Adresse is more flexible". As for Anschrift meaning somewhere to write to, I think that is incorrect - the term Lieferanschrift is really common, and Besuchsanschrift is actively used, as well (e.g. here or here). Nov 22 '16 at 22:12

Anschrift contains schrift and refers to a way to write to someone. It is a postal adress, but can be a postbox or an internal address (For example in the case of an internal post service Herr Mustermann, Papierkram department, Ministry of foreign affairs, über den Dienstweg)

Similarly you can find the word Anfahrt on websites to describe the way to reach a place while traveling (Fahrt: Journey). However, nobody refers to an address or place where one lives as an Anfahrt.

Adresse which is a loanword, can be used for other purposes: Email-Adresse, postal address, physical (street) adress. Usually if you ask for an Adresse you will get a physical address and not a post box.


Die Frage ist eine Steilvorlage, um mit Karl Kraus zu antworten, der sich erhellend mit der Frage befasst hat, und zwar in der Fackel, 6, 1921, in Sprich deutsch! (leider ist auf der Seite die Navigation so mit Javascript verlinkt, dass ich nicht auf Seite 2 linken kann, wo es losgeht).

Kurz und wenig inspiriert zusammengefasst sagt er, dass in einem Satz wie "Das ging an die Adresse des Bürgermeisters." der Bürgermeister selbst gemeint sei, und Adresse nicht durch Anschrift ersetzt werden könne. Der Adressat selbst sei gemeint. Der größere Kontext ist die Frage, ob man nicht alle Fremdwörter eindeutschen solle.

Es sind auch mehrere Bücher von Kraus zur Sprache, u.a. "Die Sprache" erschienen, die ich nur wärmstens empfehlen kann. Zwar sind die Texte ca. 100 Jahre alt, aber vieles ist noch aktuell, und sollten von Muttersprachlern mit Abitur ohne große Mühe, aber nicht ganz ohne, verstanden werden.

  • Adresse ist in diesem Kontext ursprünglich wohl im übertragenen Sinne gemeint. Allerdings wird diese Wendung so oft genutzt, dass dieser Sinn wohl schon als zusätzliche Bedeutung des Wortes genannt werden kann.
    – Titus
    Nov 23 '16 at 8:49

Adresse is just the Location and Anschrift is your name and your location.

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