The 52-year-old father was found guilty of strangling the teenager to death, and the 41-year-old mother was also jailed, as an accessory to murder, by the regional court in the western city of Darmstadt.
The deeply conservative Muslim parents had killed their daughter in January because she had been in a pre-marital sexual relationship, the court was told.
The defence had sought a lesser sentence of manslaughter. The couple will be able to apply for parole after 15 years.
