Background: Depressive symptoms and personality features of patients with mood disorders are supposed to have a strong variability in cross cultural studies. The clinical profile, the outcome and the treatment response seem to be different across the world. Aim: To investigate the differences and similarities of major depressive disorders in Chile and Germany. Material and methods: Sixty seven Chilean and German depressive inpatients, without comorbidity on axis I or II were studied. Diagnosis of depression was based on DSM IV and ICD 10 criteria for major depression. Symptomatology was assessed using the self reporting questionnaire (SRQ-20), the Symptom checklist-90-revisited (SCL 90-R), the Beck inventory for Depression (BDI), and the Hamilton scale for depression (HAM-D). Personality was assessed with the Munich Personality Scale. Results: Only the SRQ-20 shows significantly higher tendency towards depression among Chilean patients. At the personality level, Chileans exhibited higher scores in extroversion, neuroticism, esoteric and isolating tendencies. Conclusions: These results help to understand differences and similarities between depressive syndromes across cultures. They suggest that the relation between symptomatology, some personality traits and severe major depression has little variability across cultures. (Rev Méd Chile 2000; 128: 613-8).