DasTelefonbuch Scraper - German Business Directory

Scrape DasTelefonbuch (dastelefonbuch.de) — one of Germany's leading business directories. Search any business category (Branche) in any German city, town, or postal code and get names, addresses, phone numbers, ratings, opening status, and websites. Optionally follow through to each business's full profile page for precise GPS coordinates, opening-hours text, and the complete list of registered categories. No login, no cookies, no API key required.

What this actor does

• Two modes: search (category + city) and detail (direct business profile URLs)
• 40+ curated categories to pick from, or type any custom Branche
• Sort by relevance, rating, or name (A-Z)
• Filter by "open now", minimum star rating (1-5), or "has at least one rating"
• Full German character support — ä, ö, ü, ß are handled correctly in both input and output
• Rich business profiles — GPS coordinates, structured opening hours, email, logo, services, all listed categories
• Empty fields are omitted — you only ever see fields that were actually found for a business

Output per business

• name — business name
• category — the business's primary listed category (mode=search)
• categories[] — all registered categories (when profile fetched)
• rating, reviewCount — average star rating (1-5) and number of reviews
• street, zipCode, city, district
• latitude, longitude — precise GPS coordinates (when profile fetched)
• isOpenNow — live open/closed status from the search listing
• openingHours[] — structured opening hours ({day, open, close} per slot; when profile fetched and the business publishes schema.org hours)
• openingHoursText — human-readable opening-hours summary (when profile fetched)
• phone, email, website, logoUrl
• services[] — listed services/offerings ("Dienstleistungen"), searchKeywords[] — the business's own search-keyword list (when profile fetched and published)
• searchCategory, searchCity — the category/city you searched for (mode=search)
• sourceUrl — canonical DasTelefonbuch profile URL for the business
• recordType: "business", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search (category + city) or detail (fetch by URL)
category	string (select)	Klempner	Pick a common category, or custom to use customCategory (mode=search)
customCategory	string	–	Any free-text category, overrides category (mode=search)
city	string	Berlin	City, town, or postal code to search in (mode=search)
sortBy	string (select)	relevance	relevance / rating (highest first) / name (A-Z)
openNowOnly	boolean	false	Only return businesses currently open
ratedOnly	boolean	false	Only return businesses that have at least one rating (ignored when minRating is set)
minRating	string (select)	– (no minimum)	Only return businesses rated at least 1-5 stars
fetchDetails	boolean	false	Also visit each business's profile page for richer data (slower)
businessUrls	array	–	DasTelefonbuch profile URLs to fetch directly (mode=detail)
maxItems	int	50	Hard cap on returned records (1-1000)

Example: search plumbers in Berlin

{
  "mode": "search",
  "category": "Klempner",
  "city": "Berlin",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: highest-rated restaurants in Munich, with full profiles

{
  "mode": "search",
  "customCategory": "Restaurant",
  "city": "München",
  "sortBy": "rating",
  "fetchDetails": true,
  "ratedOnly": true,
  "maxItems": 30
}

Example: lawyers open right now in Cologne, A-Z

{
  "mode": "search",
  "category": "Rechtsanwalt",
  "city": "Köln",
  "sortBy": "name",
  "openNowOnly": true,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: 4+ star electricians in Hamburg, with full profiles (email, hours, services)

{
  "mode": "search",
  "category": "Elektroinstallation",
  "city": "Hamburg",
  "minRating": "4",
  "fetchDetails": true,
  "maxItems": 40
}

Example: fetch specific business profiles

{
  "mode": "detail",
  "businessUrls": [
    { "url": "https://adresse.dastelefonbuch.de/Berlin/1-Klempner-Wolfgang-Barthelt-Berlin-Heiligenseestr.html" }
  ]
}

Use cases

• Local lead generation — build a prospect list of businesses by trade and city for B2B outreach
• Market research — measure business density and average ratings for a category across German cities
• Directory aggregation — feed structured German business data into your own local-search product
• Competitor mapping — see who else operates in a category and area, with ratings and contact info
• Franchise & site-selection analysis — evaluate service-business coverage across neighborhoods

FAQ

What data source does this actor use? It reads the publicly available search and business-profile pages on dastelefonbuch.de, a leading German business directory. No account or API key is needed.

Is this affiliated with DasTelefonbuch? No. This is an independent, third-party actor that reads publicly accessible pages.

Why do some businesses have no rating, phone, or website? DasTelefonbuch only shows a rating once a business has received at least one review, and only shows contact details a business itself provided. Fields with no data are simply omitted from the record rather than shown as empty or null.

What's the difference between category and categories? category is the single category shown on the search-results card. categories (only populated with fetchDetails: true, or always in detail mode) lists the category text from the business's full profile page.

Can I search by postal code instead of a city name? Yes — the city field accepts German postal codes as well as city/town names.

How accurate are the GPS coordinates? latitude/longitude come directly from the business's own DasTelefonbuch profile page (only available with fetchDetails: true in search mode, or always in detail mode).

Why is fetchDetails off by default? Fetching each business's full profile page requires one extra request per result, which is slower. Turn it on when you need coordinates, structured opening hours, email, logo, services, or the full category list.

How does minRating differ from ratedOnly? ratedOnly returns any business with at least one review (any star rating). minRating is stricter — it only returns businesses rated at least the chosen number of stars, using DasTelefonbuch's own rating-tier filter. Set minRating when you need a quality bar, not just "has reviews".

Where does email come from? Business profile pages hide the email address behind Cloudflare's email-obfuscation mechanism to block scrapers; this actor decodes it locally. Only populated with fetchDetails: true in search mode, or always in detail mode, and only when the business has published an email.