Unemployment insurance is the cheapest social insurance: just 1.3% of your gross salary, so around €52 on a €4,000 gross salary. In return, you're protected in case you lose your job and receive unemployment benefit I.
What do you get in an emergency? Unemployment benefit I amounts to 60% of your standardized net pay (67% with children). With a previous gross salary of €4,000 and a net salary of around €2,600, you'd receive roughly €1,560-1,740 per month. The duration depends on your employment history and age: if you were employed for 24 months, you get 12 months of benefit. From age 50 with 30 months of employment, it's 15 months. Up to 24 months is only available from age 58 with 48 contribution months.
Important to know: besides money, unemployment insurance also funds further training and retraining that helps you get back into work. You can even apply for these benefits before becoming unemployed – for example, if your job is threatened by automation. So the €52 monthly investment is real protection, worth several tens of thousands of euros in an emergency.