German Commercial Register


A German Commercial Register is a public company register that contains details of all tradespeople and legal entities in the district of the registrar, which is generally the Amtsgericht of the place where the Landgericht is also situated.
Each German Commercial Register contains two branches. Branch A deals with partnerships, sole traders and registered associations without share capital. Branch B contains all incorporated companies with share capital. Applications must be made in notarized form in the presence of a public notary.

Operations

Amongst other things a Commercial Register contains information on:
  • legal name of a company
  • registered office
  • people representing the company
  • subscribed capital if any.
The functions of the Commercial Register with respect to the information submitted are publication, examination, control and safekeeping. The content may be taken as accurate by any party referring to the register.
The entries to the Commercial Register are made by a judge or an authorised employee. As of 2007 all submissions to the Register have to be made electronically. Companies in the Register are given a unique Handelsregisternummer by their local district court.
Anybody may request an extract from the Commercial Register about a specific company, the so-called Ausdruck, which was formerly known as Handelsregisterauszug or HR-Auszug. A simple extract is usually priced at €10.00, a notarized one about €20.00. Information about registered companies can also be downloaded online, but may require prior registration. It is possible to retrieve PDF printouts with different level of information, e.g. AD - Aktueller Abdruck contains only the most current information whereas CD - Chronologischer Abdruck comprises current and historical data. A fee of €4.50 for each printout will be charged. Simple publications are free of charge.
Until 2005 legal entities were mostly obliged to publish their Annual Reports by sending it to the Commercial Register. Starting with fiscal year 2006 this obligation has been transferred to the Bundesanzeiger, the Federal gazette of the German government. Electronic submission is also mandatory here. Entries to the Commercial Register are also sent to the Bundesanzeiger and published by them. Newspapers sometimes also publish new entries, although since 2009, entries to newspapers are no longer mandatory.