Germany (DE)
Overview of German company data coverage, registers, and legal forms
Overview
Germany has one of the most comprehensive and well-digitized commercial register systems in Europe. The Handelsregister (Commercial Register) is maintained by local courts across all 16 federal states, providing authoritative information on companies, partnerships, and other legal entities.
Data Sources
Handelsregister
The primary commercial register containing company filings, structured data, official documents, and the notary-verified shareholder graph
Unternehmensregister
Annual financial statements (Jahresabschluss) and published company filings
Transparenzregister
Ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) data — requires a delegated-access setup
Ownership, control, and UBO data
Germany exposes ownership through two complementary sources:
- Shareholder graph (Handelsregister) — direct and indirect shareholders with ownership percentages, reconstructed recursively. Shareholder lists are verified by notaries at filing, making this a strong ownership signal. No special credentials required. See the Handelsregister guide.
- Beneficial owners (Transparenzregister) — declared ultimate beneficial owners and control type. These are self-declarations, and access is legally restricted to German obliged entities, so it uses a delegated-access setup (the client's credentials are deployed into Kausate). See the Transparenzregister guide.
Fetching UBOs for a German company without configured Transparenzregister credentials returns a clear "credentials not configured" error. This is a legal access restriction — see the Transparenzregister guide for the delegated-access setup.
Register Types
German companies are registered in different registers depending on their legal form:
| Register | Code | Description | Example Entities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Handelsregister A | HRA | Partnerships | OHG, KG, GmbH & Co. KG |
| Handelsregister B | HRB | Corporations | GmbH, AG, UG, SE |
| Genossenschaftsregister | GnR | Cooperatives | eG |
| Partnerschaftsregister | PR | Professional partnerships | PartG, PartG mbB |
| Vereinsregister | VR | Associations | e.V. |
| Gesellschaftsregister | GsR | Civil law partnerships | eGbR (since 2024) |
Common Legal Forms
Corporations (HRB)
| Legal Form | Full Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| GmbH | Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung | Limited liability company (most common) |
| UG | Unternehmergesellschaft (haftungsbeschränkt) | Mini-GmbH with reduced capital requirements |
| AG | Aktiengesellschaft | Stock corporation |
| SE | Societas Europaea | European company |
| KGaA | Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien | Partnership limited by shares |
Partnerships (HRA)
| Legal Form | Full Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| OHG | Offene Handelsgesellschaft | General partnership |
| KG | Kommanditgesellschaft | Limited partnership |
| GmbH & Co. KG | - | Limited partnership with GmbH as general partner |
Identifiers
German companies are identified by a combination of court, register type, and register number:
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
court_id | 5-character court code | D2601 |
register_type | Register type code | HRB |
register_number | Register number | 253035 |
register_suffix | Optional suffix | B |
The normalized display format is Amtsgericht München HRB 253035.
Available Documents
| Document Type | Description | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Aktueller Abdruck | Current register extract | All companies |
| Chronologischer Abdruck | Historical extract with all changes | All companies |
| Strukturierte Registerinhalte | Machine-readable structured data | All companies |
| Gesellschafterliste | Shareholder list | GmbH, UG only |
| Satzung / Gesellschaftsvertrag | Articles of association | When filed |
Coverage
- All 16 federal states covered
- 150+ local courts (Amtsgerichte)
- All register types (HRA, HRB, GnR, PR, VR, GsR)
- Historical data available where digitized (typically from 2007 onwards)
For detailed API integration instructions, see the Handelsregister API guide.
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