I sent a request for information to a German parish addressed to Sehr geehrter Herr Pfarrer and got an extensive reply from the head of the church council, addressed to Sehr geehrter Herr naita, and ending with Mit freundlichen Grüßen.
My correspondent also encouraged the use of email for any further requests, and I need to send a thanks as well as enquire about an email he writes he sent, but which I haven’t received. What mode of address do I use?
Sehr geehrter Herr … (Dear Mr. )
Sehr geehrte Frau … (Dear Mrs./Miss/Ms)
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, (Dear Ladies and Gentleman) if you are writing to the church council
are the respective modes of adress.
Mit freundlichen Grüssen (Yours sincerely)
Herzlichen Dank (Thank you)
Vielen Dank für Ihre Bemühungen (Thank you for your efforts).
Depending on what Email programm you use, the Umlauts might not come out right at the other end, so some people prefer substituting them ä=ae, ö = oe, ü = ue, ß =ss. To a native, it does look not as “nice” as proper written Umlauts, but still better than reading “Gr25% 18&e” instead of “Grüße” (yours sincerely).
Or you use the right encoding program for the text; or HTML mail.
So basically, the etiquette for formal Emails is just like for formal letters, which you already seem to know, since you’ve given the correct form in your OP. Proper spelling, punctuation, Capitalization all are expected on the professional level in Emails, though foreigners get a pass on that if German isn’t their native language.
You keep adressing people as Herr (Mr) + last name + Sie until they offer you the “Du” + first name, then you can’t go wrong.
I can’t take credit for the original correct form of address. Form letter and the help of a friend with a more current knowledge of German. (I took German for five years of school, but then stopped using it after leaving school.)
For some odd reason I felt “Mit freundlichen Grüßen” to be a less formal form, despite using it all the time in formal Norwegian correspondence. But perhaps that’s the problem, Norwegian communication is less formal overall.
No, Mit freundlichen Grüssen is such a standard boilerplate goodbye in letters that MS Outlook auto-replaces when I type “MfG” in an email. Hardly anybody stops to think what they mean, because it’s automatic. Like “How do you do” in British English.
The informal goodbyes used in personal letters are more like :
Dein/ Deine (Yours)
Liebe Grüsse (with love)
Alles Liebe (Love)