Germany

Earthquakes in Germany, 1927–2026

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 6 or more in Germany from 1927 to October 19, 2026. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 5 in Germany in these years.

The last 30 days · as of

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.

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What the record holds

None reached magnitude 7: the strongest was a magnitude 5.3 on September 3, 1978. NOAA records no deaths for any of them. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 3.6 on May 17, 2014 (Hesse).

The events

  • May 17, 2014Earthquake · M 3.6HesseNOAA NCEI
  • December 5, 2004Earthquake · M 4.8Emmendingen, Freiburg Im BreisgauNOAA NCEI
  • March 22, 2003Earthquake · M 4.7AlbstadtNOAA NCEI
  • July 22, 2002Earthquake · M 4.8Aachen, Cologne, SpangdahlemNOAA NCEI
  • September 3, 1978Earthquake · M 5.3NOAA NCEI

Good to know

  • An event counts for Germany when it began inside its borders. Damage can reach across them.
  • USGS counts here start at magnitude 6: the catalogue’s smaller quakes thin out going back, where few instruments listened.
  • NOAA lists significant events only: earthquakes that killed, did about $1 million of damage, reached magnitude 7.5 or intensity X, or raised a tsunami, and eruptions and tsunamis by like measures. Magnitudes before 1900 are its estimates from written accounts.
  • Deaths are NOAA’s total for each event, wherever people died, its tsunami and fires included. A tsunami counts the dead its runup records give for this place: NOAA’s total for a tsunami includes its source quake’s.
  • A tsunami from elsewhere counts where one of its runups killed or rose a metre or more.
  • The map frames the box around Germany, its neighbours’ quakes included, so its count runs higher than this page’s.
  • Counted to October 19, 2026, as is the map. The last 30 days ask USGS again.

How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Earthquakes, live, The world through history

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