>>I heard that Germany has a good 'social protection' too - but I heard that also a long time ago
>
>well, fortunately this still applies to Germany!
>
>Here in Germany, in a normal case, every employee has a contract.
>If the contract doesn't include a period of cancellation, both sides need to notify at least 4 weeks before the end of the month.
>Common cancellation periods for contracts are "6 weeks before the end of a quarter" or "3 months to the end of a month" or "6 months to the end of a month". In all cases, the employer needs a valid reason for firing the employee. The employee does not, if he wants to leave.
>Sometimes, employers try to prevent employees from working for a competitor in the same business after they have left, but thats illegal.

I guess you have similar laws to us? Here it's not illegal to prevent a worker from working for a competitor, but if those restrictions are in the contract, then the employer also has to pay the worker in full for the "quarantine" period. This means that it's not often done, but it happens from time to time.