A German Commercial Register (, ) is a public

company register A company register is a register of business organizations such as companies in the jurisdiction they operate under. Registration is normally mandated by the government of that jurisdiction. A company register serves a purpose of protection, acco ...

that contains details of all tradespeople and legal entities in the district of the registrar, which is generally the Amtsgericht (local district court) of the place where the '' Landgericht'' (superior court) is also situated. Each German Commercial Register contains two branches. Branch A deals with partnerships, sole traders and registered associations (''Vereine'') without share capital. Branch B contains all incorporated companies with share capital. Applications (for new entries, changes and liquidations) 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 A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

registered office A registered office is the official address of an incorporated company, association or any other legal entity. Generally it will form part of the public record and is required in most countries where the registered organization or legal entity ...

*people representing the

(

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

, holders of proxy) *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 A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

or an authorised employee (''Rechtspfleger'', lit. "law caretaker"). 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 (''Amtsgericht''). Anybody may request an extract from the Commercial Register about a specific

, the so-called ''Ausdruck'' (printout), which was formerly known as ''Handelsregisterauszug'' or ''HR-Auszug''. A simple extract is usually priced at €10.00, a

notarized A notary is a person authorised to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents. The form that the notarial profession takes varies with local legal systems. A notary, while a legal professional, is distin ...

one about €20.00 (as of May 2016). Information about registered companies can also be downloaded online (''Handelsregister online'', the common register portal of the German federal states), but may require prior registration. It is possible to retrieve PDF printouts (then called ''Abdruck'') 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 (as of May 2016). Simple publications (''VÖ - Veröffentlichungen'') 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 A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...

2006 this obligation has been transferred to the Bundesanzeiger, the (electronic) 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.

References

{{reflist

External links

Handelsregister.de
Official Information Portal of the German Commercial Register (Multi-Language) *
Simple search
*
Advanced search

Bundesanzeiger.de
Official Information Portal of the German Bundesanzeiger (German language) Economy of Germany Government of Germany cs:Obchodní rejstřík fr:Registre du commerce et des sociétés (France) nl:Handelsregister

Operations

See also

References

External links