The court in Frankfurt an der Oder on the Polish border convicted Sabine Hilschenz, a 40-year-old woman who has borne a total of 13 children, of eight counts of manslaughter.
The case sparked soul-searching across Germany about a breakdown of social values in depressed areas of the former communist east.
The court found that Hilschenz, an unemployed dental hygienist with a long history of alcoholism, gave birth to the infants then left them to fend for themselves.
The judges found that each of the children probably died of hypothermia.
Buried in flower pots
Brandenburg state prosecutors, who demanded a life sentence for Hilschenz on murder charges, believe she killed a ninth baby in 1988 but the case expired under the statute of limitations.
The court stopped short of convicting her of murder but gave her the maximum penalty for manslaughter.
"Eight human beings were killed," presiding judge Matthias Fuchs said, noting that the babies had likely suffered more by freezing to death than if she had killed them by her own hand.
Dressed in a brown suit with her dark brown hair swept back in a bun, Hilschenz smiled wryly as the verdict was read. Her defence attorney said Hilschenz would appeal.
"My client was prepared for the fact that such a sentence was possible although she had hoped for a lesser one," Matthias Schoeneburg said.
The remains of the babies, buried in flowerpots, a fish tank and a baby's plastic bathtub, were found last summer in a shed owned by Hilschenz's parents in a small town near Frankfurt an der Oder.
The horror of the discovery left Germans baffled about how the almost unbroken chain of pregnancies and deaths over the course of a decade could have gone unnoticed.
Described by psychiatrists as sane and "extremely bright", Hilschenz is believed to have had sex regularly without contraception with her husband Oliver, who has said he was unaware of the pregnancies or deaths. He has not been charged.
Alcohol drowned the pain
She told investigators that as soon as the contractions began each time she went into labour, she drowned the pain in alcohol to the point that she passed out.
Each time she awoke, she said, she would find the lifeless body of a baby buried in potting soil on the balcony of her apartment. The court said it doubted whether she acted alone in hiding the tiny bodies.
Pathologists had been unable to say whether the babies, seven girls and two boys, were born alive or to determine the cause of death because their remains were in an advanced state of decomposition.
It said that Hilschenz believed her husband was vehemently opposed to having more children and was terrified he would leave her if she became pregnant again.
Oliver Hilschenz and the couple's three grown children declined to testify.
But friends of Hilschenz's children described her to the court as a good mother and were stunned to learn about the dead infants.
Neighbors, friends and relatives made the same claim, saying her heavy-set build and loose-fitting clothing apparently allowed her to hide the fact she was expecting.
Hilschenz and her husband divorced last year. She then became pregnant by her new boyfriend and carried the child to term.
She is now reportedly suffering from cancer and scheduled to undergo an operation.