# Germany

Company data from the Germany business register, through the Topograph API.

## Overview

Topograph reads Unternehmensregister (German Business Register), Handelsregister (VR - Vereinsregister), Transparenzregister (German UBO Register) and Bundesanzeiger (Federal Gazette) and returns the company profile, legal representatives, other key persons, shareholders, ultimate beneficial owners and subsidiaries of Germany companies through one API.

## Coverage

What comes back for each datapoint and document, as on the coverage matrix.

Requests run in prefill mode (fast) or verification mode (the authoritative register answer).

| Datapoint | Returned | Note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Company profile | Yes |  |
| Legal representatives | Yes |  |
| Other key persons | Yes | Comes back in Verify. |
| Shareholders | Partly | Comes back in Verify. |
| Ultimate beneficial owners | Partly |  |
| Subsidiaries | Yes | Comes back in Verify. |

| Document | Returned |
| --- | --- |
| Register extract | Yes |
| Articles of association | Yes |
| Financials | Yes |
| UBO extract | Yes |

### Documents, as the register names them

- Handelsregisterauszug
- Gesellschaftsvertrag / Satzung / Statut
- Jahresabschlussunterlagen
- Hinterlegte Jahresabschlussunterlagen
- Transparenzregisterauszug

### Speed

A company profile typically comes back from the register in 4 s in prefill mode and 11 s in verification mode. These are typical observations, not a service-level commitment: set your timeouts well above them.

## Sources

The registers this country’s data comes from. Secondary sources only enrich or check what the registers return.

- **[Unternehmensregister (German Business Register)](https://www.unternehmensregister.de)**: German central business register aggregating data from all local court registers (Handelsregister)
- **[Handelsregister (VR - Vereinsregister)](https://www.handelsregister.de)**: German trade register, used separately for VR (Vereinsregister) entries covering nonprofits and associations (e.V.)
- **[Transparenzregister (German UBO Register)](https://www.transparenzregister.de)**: German UBO register operated by Bundesanzeiger Verlag. Access requires per-customer obliged entity credentials.
- **[Bundesanzeiger (Federal Gazette)](https://www.bundesanzeiger.de)**: German Federal Gazette operated by Bundesanzeiger Verlag, sister site of the Unternehmensregister. Holds the annual and consolidated financial statements (Jahres- and Konzernabschluss) published for financial years that began before 2022; later statements are filed with the Unternehmensregister.
- **[GLEIF (Legal Entity Identifiers)](https://www.gleif.org/en/lei-data/gleif-golden-copy/download-the-golden-copy)** (secondary): Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation – Legal Entity Identifier reference data

## Identifiers

Request a company by its Register Number as the `id`, with `countryCode` set to `DE`. Its format, validation rules and an example value are in the full reference.

## The full Germany reference

The full reference covers how each datapoint is sourced and mapped, the vocabularies the API returns, the documents you can order and exact example responses. It is free with a Topograph account.

| In the full reference | Entries |
| --- | --- |
| Identifiers and formats | 6 |
| Search patterns | 4 |
| Quirks | 13 |
| Legal forms | 49 |
| Officer roles | 77 |
| Company statuses | 6 |
| Documents | 8 |
| Example responses | 11 |

- Create a free account: https://www.topograph.co/sign-up?redirect_url=%2Fcountries%2Fde
- Sign in: https://www.topograph.co/sign-in?redirect_url=%2Fcountries%2Fde

With a session, https://www.topograph.co/countries/de.md returns the full reference as Markdown. Assistants signed in to the [Topograph Wizard MCP](https://docs.topograph.co/guides/topograph-mcp) can read it there too.

## Germany business register guide

[Germany business register guide](https://www.topograph.co/guides/germany-business-register): how the register works, what it publishes and which documents it issues.

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Source: https://www.topograph.co/countries/de