How to back out from a signed apartment contract?

The real risk here isn't just the deposit. If you sign and then back out, the landlord can hold you to the full contract term until they find a replacement tenant. That could mean paying rent for months in a tight market like Berlin where vacancies fill fast, but it's still a legal possibility.

Your best move is to stall the first landlord. Tell them you need a few extra days because of a "personal matter" or "bank transfer delay" before signing. Some landlords will grant that if you seem serious. If you already signed, be honest with them immediately after you know about the second place. Most owners would rather find a new tenant now than chase you for rent later, especially if you haven't picked up the keys yet.

Also check if your contract has a "Schonfrist" clause or anything about a probationary period. Those are uncommon in Berlin standard contracts but they do exist in some newer templates from larger housing companies.

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german rental contracts have a standard 14-day cooling-off period for contracts signed outside of business premises, but that usually doesn't apply if you signed at the landlord's office or agency. check if your contract has a "provisionsvorbehalt" clause - some let you back out if you find something better within a certain window, but it's rare. worst case you lose the deposit or owe one month's rent as penalty, but you can always try talking to the first landlord directly, especially if you haven't moved in yet. kreuzberg landlords might be more flexible than mitte ones in my experience

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honestly the easiest way is to just be straight with both landlords. tell the first one you need a few more days because your schufa check is still pending or something, that's normal here. most berlin landlords know the drill and won't freak out over a short delay

if you've already signed though you're kinda stuck. the gesetzlich kündigungsfrist is 3 months for most contracts but you can negotiate a aufhebungsvertrag with the landlord. they might let you out early if you pay the provision or find a nachmieter yourself. i've seen people offer to pay one month's rent as compensation and landlords take it

the deposit thing is separate from the contract btw. even if you pay it you can still cancel before the contract starts, you just might lose the deposit as a penalty. some contracts have a klausel that says you forfeit it if you back out, but that's not always enforceable. check the contract for a "verzichtsklausel" or similar wording

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Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.

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if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point

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honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.

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