Search the Germany Company Register by Name
Gemeinsames Registerportal der Länder
Search the Handelsregister
Search Company Records in Germany
Free basic search · no sign-up required.
How do I search the Handelsregister company registry?
Start with Handelsregister for Germany. Use the legal name or supported identifier, compare the exact entity and inspect available fields. Company registration and VAT checks are separate tasks; coverage and official access requirements vary.
- Registry
- Handelsregister
- Coverage
- Depends on the register, entity type and available integration; a missing result is not proof of non-registration
- Cost
- LemReveal basic lookup is free where supported; official services have separate access and fee rules
- Data freshness
- Our mirror of this register was last refreshed 2026-08-04
Germany company records
Every record below has its own page with the registered name, registration number, registered address, legal form and status, plus free change monitoring. Records are mirrored from public open data (GLEIF LEI, CC0), which sources them from the national register.
What Handelsregister contains, and what it costs
Field coverage, identifier formats and fees, verified against the official sources listed at the end of this section.
What a Germany company record returns
- Registered company name (Firma) and legal form
- Handelsregister number and the local court (Amtsgericht) holding it
- Registered seat (Sitz) and business address
- Object of the company (Unternehmensgegenstand)
- Share capital (Stammkapital)
- Managing directors and authorised representatives
- Filed annual accounts, via the Bundesanzeiger
Free versus paid
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Company search and basic register extract | Free since 2022 |
| Current and chronological printouts (Ausdruck) | Free |
| Filed documents (Dokumente) | Free |
| Annual accounts via Bundesanzeiger | Free |
What a Germany registration number looks like
HRA or HRB, a number, and the registering court
HRB 12345 (Amtsgericht München)
HRB is for corporations (GmbH, AG); HRA for partnerships and sole traders. The number is only unique together with the court.
DE followed by 9 digits
DE123456789
Official sources
- Handelsregister — common register portal — The official German commercial register
- Unternehmensregister — Single access point for register data and company publications
- Bundesanzeiger — Published annual accounts and statutory notices
Germany: choosing and checking the right record
- Choose the correct source
- Use the Handelsregister for the registered legal entity and its filings. Match the register category, register number and responsible court; a company-name search by itself can return branches and similarly named entities.
- Confirm the entity
- Keep the court alongside an HRB or HRA number. Read the German legal form and representation provisions on the record rather than translating every representative into a director or owner.
- When the search returns nothing
- Try the legal name, spelling variants and the registered town. A business outside the commercial-register scope may need a different source; absence from Handelsregister is not a universal business-existence verdict.
- What the record cannot establish
- Commercial-register, VAT and beneficial-ownership checks are separate tasks. A manager's name does not by itself establish ownership or unrestricted signing authority. Use the actual entry and current access rules.
Official register-information access guidance
Check current access and document options on the official Handelsregister site. Keep the exact entity identifier, source URL and retrieval date with your evidence. A LemReveal record PDF is not a government-certified extract.
Step-by-step guides for Germany
Free how-to walkthroughs — search by name, check directors, get an official extract.
Searches people run for Germany
Each one answers a different question — free, no account needed.
Email me the Germany record as a PDF
FreeA dated, source-cited Germany record you can file against a KYB or vendor-onboarding check. Free — no account needed.
Free. We only use your email to send the document and tell you if the record changes.
Germany — by the numbers
- Records indexed
- 3,076
- Last updated
- 2026-08-04
- Top entity type
- GENERAL
- Cost
- Free
3,000 records
No signup required
About the German business register
The German business register — known locally as the Handelsregister — is the official commercial register for every GmbH, AG, UG and partnership in Germany. Use this page to run a German business entity search by company name, register court (HRA/HRB) number or city, and pull the same data the Handelsregister itself exposes: managing directors, share capital, registered office and date of entry. All searches on LemReveal are free and require no signup.
Handelsregister at a glance
- What it publishes
- Registered company name (Firma) and legal form, Handelsregister number and the local court (Amtsgericht) holding it, Registered seat (Sitz) and business address
- What it costs
- Company search and basic register extract: free
- How current it is
- Our mirror of this register was last refreshed 2026-08-04
- Can we monitor it
- Not currently offered for this source; lookup availability does not imply change monitoring
Access German Handelsregister (commercial register) data. Search for GmbH, AG, and other German business entities with registration details.
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Sign in with Google to save records, keep your search history, and watch supported Handelsregister companies for changes.
3.5M+
Registered Companies
#3 Global
GDP Rank
$1.8T
Export Volume
Court-based
Registry Type
Registry Overview
Germany's Handelsregister (commercial register) is maintained by local courts across 16 federal states. It contains mandatory registration data for all commercial enterprises including GmbH (limited liability), AG (stock corporation), and partnerships. Germany is Europe's largest economy with over 3.5 million registered businesses. The Handelsregister is partially available online through the common register portal.
Entity Types
- •GmbH (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung)
- •AG (Aktiengesellschaft)
- •UG (Unternehmergesellschaft)
- •OHG (Offene Handelsgesellschaft)
- •KG (Kommanditgesellschaft)
- •GmbH & Co. KG
Data Available
- ✓Company name and legal form
- ✓Registered office address
- ✓Registration court and number
- ✓Managing directors
- ✓Share capital
- ✓Purpose of the company
- ✓Proxy holders (Prokura)
- ✓Date of registration
Free tools for Germany
How to search the Handelsregister
- 1
Search via Handelsregister or Unternehmensregister
Handelsregister.de is the official trade register; Unternehmensregister.de is the umbrella portal that includes Handelsregister plus accounts and announcements. Most workflows start with Unternehmensregister for breadth.
- 2
Identify the entity form
GmbH is the most common limited-liability form; AG is the public stock corporation; UG (haftungsbeschränkt) is the entrepreneur company. Each form has different capital, governance, and disclosure requirements.
- 3
Pull the current Handelsregister excerpt
The HR-Auszug lists registered office, managing directors, share capital, and signing authority. It's the canonical document for German B2B due diligence.
- 4
Cross-check accounts via Bundesanzeiger
Annual accounts are published in the Federal Gazette. Mid-sized and large GmbHs publish full P&L and balance sheet; small entities may file abbreviated accounts.
Who uses this data
Handelsregister data is essential for sales teams in DACH markets, credit-risk and supply-chain teams meeting German Lieferkettengesetz obligations, and EU-wide compliance teams reconciling beneficial ownership against the Transparenzregister.
Access, fees & notes
Electronic register-information retrieval has been free since 1 August 2022. Check current terms for certified copies and other services. Keep the court, register category and number together: the number alone is not nationally unique. See https://www.unternehmensregister.de/de/so-gehts/registerinformationen?language=de.
Cost & access
Since August 2022, most standard electronic excerpts (AD, CD, HD) are free of charge. Bulk data and specialized API access are available through the Bundesanzeiger Verlag via paid subscriptions.
Local-language glossary
- Amtsgericht (AG)
- The local court responsible for maintaining the commercial register for its specific jurisdiction.
- Handelsregister Abteilung B (HRB)
- The section of the register for corporations such as GmbH, AG, and UG.
- GmbH
- Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung; a limited liability company and the most frequent legal entity in Germany.
- Prokura
- A specific legal power of attorney granted to an individual representing the company, which must be registered.
- Aktueller Ausdruck (AD)
- A current printout showing the present valid data of a company.
- Chronologischer Ausdruck (CD)
- A chronological printout containing all data entered since the transition to electronic register management.
Common mistakes to avoid
✗ Using unofficial 'Handelsregister' websites that charge high service fees.
✓ Always use the official governmental portal (handelsregister.de) where standard extracts are now free.
✗ Confusing the Handelsregister with the Transparenzregister.
✓ The Handelsregister tracks legal ownership and representation, while the Transparenzregister tracks beneficial owners (UBOs).
✗ Ineffective searching due to umlauts (ä, ö, ü).
✓ Try searching both with the umlaut and the 'ae, oe, ue' transcription if the company is not found initially.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I search the German company register?▾
The Handelsregister is searchable online at handelsregister.de. You can search by company name, registration number, or registered location. Basic searches are free, but accessing full documents may require a fee.
What is the difference between GmbH and AG?▾
GmbH (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) is the equivalent of an LLC — a limited liability company requiring minimum €25,000 share capital. AG (Aktiengesellschaft) is a public stock corporation requiring minimum €50,000 share capital, comparable to a PLC or Corp.
What is a UG (haftungsbeschränkt)?▾
The UG is a 'mini-GmbH' introduced in 2008. It can be founded with as little as €1 share capital, making it popular for startups. UGs must retain 25% of annual profits until they accumulate €25,000, at which point they can convert to a full GmbH.
Is German company data available in English?▾
The Handelsregister portal is primarily in German. Company documents and filings are in German. Some commercial data providers offer translated or structured English-language data extracted from the registry.
How do I search for a company in Germany by name?▾
Use the available lookup or the linked official Handelsregister service. Start with the legal name, then compare the exact HRB number and available identity fields. Name matches are candidates; source coverage and partial-name support vary.
Is the Germany company register free to search?▾
Basic company lookup is free on LemReveal. The official Germany register has independent access rules and may require an account or charge for searches, extracts or particular documents. Check the source's current terms.
Can I search Germany companies by registration number?▾
Where the source supports it, use the exact HRB number together with its register or jurisdiction. Preserve prefixes and leading zeros and compare the returned legal name. A number alone does not guarantee coverage or a successful lookup.
How do I check whether a company is registered in Germany?▾
Search the exact HRB number or legal name above, then confirm the entity's identifier and source. An empty result can reflect coverage limits, a source outage, spelling or a different jurisdiction; it does not prove the business is unregistered. A fuzzy candidate is not a confirmed identity.
How can I tell if a Germany company is still active?▾
Read the status and effective date where the Handelsregister supplies them. Active registration does not establish trading or financial health. Monitoring is available only for supported sources and confirmed records; verify the actual watch state.
How do I find a company's HRB number?▾
Identify the legal entity using the available lookup or official Handelsregister route. Record the HRB only where supplied, with its source and jurisdiction. Do not infer missing identifiers from a similar name.
What is the difference between HRB and Handelsregister?▾
Both identify a business on the Handelsregister, but they are issued for different purposes and are not interchangeable. A company can appear under either — searching by name returns both where they exist.
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What is this number?
Paste any business identifier — VAT, LEI, company number, DUNS, ABN, CNPJ, CIN, CIK — and we will tell you what it is and who issues it. Where this decoder supports the identifier's check digit, it also validates it; other results are clearly marked as format-only matches.
Nothing leaves your browser — the check runs locally.
Which register do I need?
2. What are you trying to do?
Pick a country and a goal and we will name the register, what it publishes for that job, and what it charges.
What each field on the Handelsregister means
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Recently indexed from the Germany register
Related Intelligence
Decision-makers indexed across Germany companies
Platform-wide: 5,926 decision-makers indexed across 734 companies. Distribution by seniority:
- C-Suite331 · 6%
- VP31 · 1%
- Director173 · 3%
- Manager18 · 0%
- Individual Contributor4,474 · 75%
- Other899 · 15%
Aggregate counts only — no personal information is shown. Data refreshed 2026-07-04.
Get alerted when a Germany company record changes
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Cite this record
LemReveal. (2026). Germany — Handelsregister Dataset. Source: Handelsregister. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://lemreveal.com/data/germany
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Measured registry access
- Germany registry access: 27/100
60% of 155 measured searches returned a record
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