Commercial register; application for registration

If your commercial enterprise requires a commercial business operation or if you want to set up a corporation, an entry in the commercial register is required.

If your commercial enterprise requires a commercial business operation, you must have it entered in the commercial register.

Registration is required, for example, if you

• carry out a wide range of activities, especially internationally,
• require a large warehouse,
• have a high turnover volume.

If you want to set up a corporation, such as a GmbH, this only becomes effective once it has been entered in the commercial register.

You must also register certain changes. These include, for example

• Change of company name (name of the company),
• relocation of the registered office, granting of power of attorney,
• Change of name or place of residence of authorized representatives,
• conversions,
• dissolutions.

You can only apply for registration electronically in a publicly notarized form. The notarization is carried out by notaries who also check the eligibility for registration and send the application electronically to the commercial register.

Bavaria-wide supplement

The commercial register is kept at the local court registry court. The court in whose district the merchant's branch or the company's registered office is located is responsible for the entries.

Bavaria-wide supplement

The relevant legal provisions (e.g. German Commercial Code, German Limited Liability Companies Act, German Stock Corporation Act) regulate in detail which facts must be entered and can be entered. In the case of merchants, the entry includes, among other things, details of the owner, company name, branch office, authorized representatives, and in the case of a limited liability company, details of the registered office, company name, object of the company, managing directors and powers of representation. The dissolution of a company must also be entered in the commercial register.

• Complaint

You can register with the commercial register on site or online with a notary.

The notary will notarize the application, check its registrability and send it as an electronic document with a qualified electronic signature to the electronic court and administrative mailbox of the competent registry court. If desired, the notary will also prepare the draft for the application and provide you with comprehensive advice on this.

The registry court enters the entry in the court's internal database and also publishes the entry on the Internet (www.handelsregister.de). You will receive a notification of registration.

If there are important changes, you must also register these with a notary for entry in the commercial register.

Bavaria-wide supplement

As of January 1, 2007, the registry courts are no longer permitted to accept paper submissions.

There is no deadline. Changes must be notified promptly. The registry court may enforce the registration by imposing a penalty payment if the registration is not made.

The registration court decides on the entry immediately after the application has been received. If all documents are available and no objections from the court are necessary, entries are usually made within a few working days.

Fixed fees are charged for entries in the commercial register in accordance with the Commercial Register Fees Ordinance. In addition, notary fees are regularly incurred for the preparation of the draft or notarization of the required commercial register application.

There are no indications or special features.

Bavaria-wide supplement

Please note that not every local court in Bavaria is responsible for keeping the commercial register. Commercial registers are kept at the following local courts:

• Amberg Local Court (for the local court districts of Amberg and Schwandorf)
• Ansbach Local Court (for the districts of Ansbach and Weißenburg i. Bay.)
• Aschaffenburg Local Court (for the local court districts of Aschaffenburg and Obernburg a. Main)
• Augsburg Local Court (for the local court districts of Aichach, Augsburg, Dillingen a.d. Donau, Landsberg am Lech and Nördlingen)
• Bamberg Local Court (for the local court districts of Bamberg, Forchheim and Haßfurt)
• Bayreuth Local Court (for the local court districts of Bayreuth and Kulmbach)
• Coburg Local Court (for the local court districts of Coburg, Kronach and Lichtenfels)
• Deggendorf Local Court (for the local court districts of Deggendorf and Viechtach)
• Fürth Local Court (for the local court districts of Erlangen, Fürth and Neustadt a. d. Aisch)
• Hof Local Court (for the local court districts of Hof and Wunsiedel)
• Ingolstadt Local Court (for the local court districts of Ingolstadt, Neuburg a. d. Donau and Pfaffenhofen a. d. Ilm)
• Kempten/Allgäu Local Court (for the local court districts of Kaufbeuren, Kempten/Allgäu, Lindau/Bodensee and Sonthofen)
• Landshut Local Court (for the local court districts of Eggenfelden, Landau a.d. Isar and Landshut)
• Memmingen Local Court (for the local court districts of Günzburg, Memmingen and Neu-Ulm)
• Munich Local Court (for the local court districts of Dachau, Ebersberg, Erding, Freising, Fürstenfeldbruck, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Miesbach, Starnberg, Weilheim i. OB, Wolfratshausen and Munich)
• Nuremberg Local Court (for the local court districts of Hersbruck, Neumarkt i.d. OPf., Nuremberg and Schwabach)
• Passau Local Court (for the local court districts of Freyung and Passau)
• Regensburg Local Court (for the local court districts of Cham, Kelheim and Regensburg)
• Local Court of Schweinfurt (for the local court districts of Bad Kissingen, Bad Neustadt a.d. Saale and Schweinfurt)
• Straubing Local Court (for the local court district of Straubing)
• Traunstein Local Court (for the local court districts of Altötting, Laufen, Mühldorf am Inn, Rosenheim and Traunstein)
• Weiden i. d. OPf. local court (for the local court districts of Tirschenreuth and Weiden i. d. OPf.)
• Würzburg Local Court (for the local court districts of Gemünden a. Main, Kitzingen and Würzburg).

The commercial register is kept in two sections.

The following are entered in section A

• Sole traders,
• Partnerships (KG, OHG, European Economic Interest Groupings),
• Legal entities whose entry in the commercial register must be made with regard to the object or the type and scope of their business operations (e.g. associations with legal capacity and public corporations that operate a commercial business).

The following are entered in section B

• Limited liability companies (GmbH),
• public limited companies (AG),
• partnerships limited by shares (KGaA),
• mutual insurance associations,
• Societas Europaea (SE).

• Required Documents
  • Publicly notarized application to the commercial register
  • Depending on the legal form of your company and the type of facts to be entered, further documents are required (in some cases also in notarized or publicly certified form)

  You can find out which documents you need to submit in each individual case from the notary and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK).