🇩🇪 Germany

Overview

AiPrise verifies German businesses against the Commercial Register (Handelsregister) and the Company Register (Unternehmensregister). A business verification returns the company profile, managing directors and other officers, shareholders, and documents filed with the register, including the shareholder list and annual reports.

Coverage

Data point	Returned	Note
Company profile	Yes	Legal name, legal form, status, registration date, registered address
Directors and legal representatives	Yes	Managing directors, executive board members, authorised signatories (Prokura)
Shareholders	Yes	From the filed shareholder list
Ultimate beneficial owners	Yes, when filed	Returned for few companies
VAT number check	Yes	Separate check against the EU VAT register

Document	Returned
Register extract	Yes
Shareholder list	Yes, when filed
Articles of association	Yes, when filed
Financial statements	Yes, when filed

Documents, as the register names them

Chronologischer Handelsregisterauszug (chronological register extract)
Liste der Gesellschafter (shareholder list)
Gesellschaftsvertrag / Satzung (articles of association)
Jahresabschluss / Rechnungslegung (annual report)

Speed

Step	Typical	9 in 10 within
Business verification (company data, officers, shareholders)	17 seconds	65 seconds

These are typical times from production, not a service-level commitment: set timeouts well above them, or use callbacks.

Company types

Every entity in the Handelsregister is covered, plus registered associations.

Company type	Legal forms	Covered	What to expect
Private limited company	GmbH	Yes	Full data: officers, shareholders, documents
Mini private limited company	UG (haftungsbeschränkt)	Yes	Full data
Limited partnership	KG, GmbH & Co. KG	Yes	Full data
Public limited company	AG	Yes	Full data
General partnership	OHG	Yes	Full data
Registered merchant	e.K.	Yes	Profile and owner
Registered association	e.V.	Yes	Profile and board
Foreign company with a German branch	Ltd., N.V. and others	Yes	German branch data

Sources

Register	What it gives
Handelsregister (German Commercial Register)	Company profile, officers, register extract, shareholder list, articles of association
Unternehmensregister and Bundesanzeiger	Annual reports
VIES (EU VAT register)	VAT number check

Identifiers

Search by legal name, with country_code set to DE. If you send a register number, send it as written in the register.

Identifier	Format	Example
Register number	Register type and number, for example `HRB 12345`	`HRB 12345`
VAT number (USt-IdNr.)	`DE` followed by 9 digits. Used only for the VAT check.	`DE123456789`

You can also search by legal name.

Statuses and legal forms

Every result carries the register's own status in registration_info.status and an AiPrise status in registration_info.normalised_status. The normalised status is one of Active, Suspended, Dormant, Dissolved / Struck Off, In Liquidation / Insolvency or Unknown.

Register status	Normalised status
active	Active
liquidation	In Liquidation / Insolvency
terminated	Dissolved / Struck Off

Legal forms come back as abbreviations in entity_type, for example GmbH, UG, GmbH & Co. KG, e. K., e. V. and AG.

Quirks and gotchas

Country-specific behaviour to know before you integrate.

Quirk	Details
Search by name	The legal name is the main input. A register number such as `HRB 12345` is reused by different local courts, so on its own it can match the wrong company.
UGs	About 1 in 10 companies are `UG (haftungsbeschränkt)`, a form of GmbH. They return the same data as a GmbH.
Liquidators are not normalised	Liquidators come back with the role name `Liquidator` and the normalised role `UNKNOWN`.
Foreign companies	Foreign companies with a German branch (for example a UK `Ltd.`) are covered, with the branch's register data.

Limits

UBOs come back only for few companies.
Shareholder lists, articles and annual reports come back only when the company has filed them.