How can you quickly obtain information from the German Commercial Register?
German companies and registered businesses, including GmbH, UG, KG, AG, OHG and e.K., are entered in the Commercial Register (Handelsregister) maintained by the competent register courts. Today, companies registered throughout Germany can be searched through the common Registerportal of the German federal states. If you do not want to search for the company and the required documents yourself, you can use our service. Simply provide the company name and any other information you have, and we will identify the correct record and obtain the requested documents.
What information can we obtain from the German Commercial Register?
One of the most commonly requested documents is a Commercial Register extract, often referred to in German as a Handelsregisterauszug. It contains the main registered information about a company. For a GmbH, however, the shareholders are normally shown in a separate document called the Gesellschafterliste, or shareholder list.
A German Commercial Register extract normally contains information such as:
- The company name, registered office and registered business information;
- The persons authorised to represent the company, such as managing directors, members of the management board and authorised signatories;
- Information about the registered capital, where applicable;
- The legal form of the company;
- The date of the latest entry in the register.
There are three main types of German Commercial Register extracts:
- Current Extract (Aktueller Abdruck – AD): shows the entries that are currently valid in the register.
- Chronological Extract (Chronologischer Abdruck – CD): shows the register entries recorded since the relevant register was converted to electronic management, including previous entries.
- Historical Extract (Historischer Abdruck – HD): contains older register information from the period before the transition to electronic register management.
After you place an order, electronic documents can be sent to you in PDF format by email. If you require an official, certified or apostilled document, additional processing may be necessary and the completed documents can be sent by post or international courier.
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