Retail sales rose by 0.4 percent in February compared with January in price, seasonally and calendar-adjusted terms, according to provisional figures by the federal statistics office Destatis.
Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a drop of around 0.6 percent this month following a rise of 3.0 percent in January.
On a 12-month basis, however, retail sales were down by 2.2 percent in February, but that was partly because there was one fewer shopping day this in February this year than in the same month last year, the statisticians noted.
Monthly retail sales data are volatile and subject to frequent revision.