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What a German application actually contains
A German application is a small dossier, and sending less than the expected set reads as not having bothered. The full Bewerbungsunterlagen are a one-page Anschreiben (cover letter, lesson 55), a tabellarischer Lebenslauf (lesson 54), and — the part that surprises most people — copies of your Zeugnisse: your degree certificate and a reference from each previous employer. That employer reference, das Arbeitszeugnis, has no real equivalent in English-speaking countries. You are entitled to one when you leave a job in Germany, it must be benevolent in tone, and it therefore developed a coded language in which mild praise means criticism. Lesson 91 decodes it. If you have only ever worked outside Germany you will not have any, and saying so plainly is fine: Arbeitszeugnisse sind in meinem Herkunftsland nicht üblich. Two things have changed and the templates online have not all caught up. A photo was once effectively obligatory; since the Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz of 2006 an employer may not require one, and many now ask you not to send it. Date of birth, marital status and nationality belong to the same list — older Lebenslauf templates still have rows for them, and you may leave them empty. What does remain standard, and looks odd to an Anglophone eye, is that the Lebenslauf is dated and often signed. Finally, the register of the ad tells you the register of the reply. An ad that says Sie expects Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren; an ad written in du — increasingly common in tech — permits Hallo. Match the ad and you cannot go wrong.