The DFB officially announced the bid for the 2024 tournament in January. Turkey also plans to bid and Scandinavian countries are likely to.
Munich's Allianz Arena, Berlin's Olympic stadium and Borussia Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park are among the 18 stadiums vying for the 10 tournament locations.
Of those 18, 15 meet a requirement of European soccer's governing body, UEFA, for at least 30,000 seats. Freiburg and Karlsruhe have planned capacity increases, but Dresden's 25,000-seat stadium does not meet the standards, the DFB said.
All 18 now have until June to hand in their files to the DFB which will name the 10 selected stadiums in September. UEFA will announce all candidate countries on March 10 and its decision on the winning bid in September 2018.
"This resonance (of 18 cities interested) shows the great enthusiasm for a Euro in Germany," said DFB President Reinhard Grindel. "It also underlines the fact that we possess a stadium infrastructure for such a tournament.
The last time Germany hosted a major soccer event was the 2006 World Cup, for which former DFB presidents and then World Cup committee organising staff are currently being investigated for alleged corruption, embezzlement and tax evasion.
Grindel has said the Euro 2024 bid would be transparent.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Larry King)
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