Entry in the Commercial Register as a limited liability company (GmbH)

The commercial register is a public register kept by the district courts. It serves to ensure legal certainty in commercial transactions by providing complete and reliable evidence of the factual and legal circumstances whose disclosure is of particular interest to the general public. Two sections are maintained:

Department A: For sole traders and partnerships (e.K., OHG, KG).

Department B: For corporations (GmbH, AG)

The commercial register enjoys public faith. This means that bona fide legal transactions are protected to a limited extent in their trust in the correctness of the entries and announcements.

The content of the entry is published ex officio in the electronic Federal Gazette. In principle, all entries are published in their full wording.

The entry in the Commercial Register must be filed with the locally competent district court in electronic form. The signature of the merchant or the managing director must be certified by a notary public. Depending on the form of the company, different information must be provided and attachments must be included.

A stock corporation is entered in the Commercial Register in Department B. So-called corporations are registered in department B (HRB).

Required information:

• The company name
• The registered office of the company
• The object of the company
• The amount of the share capital
• The date of adoption of the articles of association
• Possible provision on the duration of the company
• Possible provision on the authorized capital
• The persons of the managing directors and the extent of their respective powers of representation

Requirements

Before the registration of the limited liability company

• the articles of association must be available
• the contributions in kind must be paid in full and
• the cash contributions must have been paid up to at least 25 percent of the respective nominal amount of each individual share.

In total, at least enough must have been paid in on the share capital so that the total amount of the paid-in cash contributions plus the total amount of the business shares for which contributions in kind are to be made reaches at least half of the minimum share capital.