German Company Register Search (Handelsregister)

Search Germany's official company register and get structured, verified company records: register number (HRB/HRA), responsible court, legal form, registered seat, and status. Built for KYC, due diligence, lead enrichment, and B2B data pipelines.

This Actor queries the official German register portal - the authoritative legal source for every registered company in Germany (per Section 9 HGB, this data is public by law).

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What you get per company

Field	Example	Description
companyName	"Mustermann Bau GmbH"	Official registered name
registerId	"HRB 174601"	Register type + number
court	"Amtsgericht München"	Responsible register court
state	"Bayern"	Federal state
seat	"München"	Registered seat (city)
status	"active" / "deleted"	Current register status
legalFormHint	"GmbH"	Detected legal form (GmbH, AG, UG, KG, e.V., eG, ...)
searchTerm	"Mustermann Bau"	Which of your searches produced this record

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Use cases

KYC & compliance - verify that a company legally exists, is still active, and find its official register number for contracts and invoices.

Lead enrichment - you have company names from LinkedIn, trade fairs, or web scraping? Enrich them with official register data and filter out shell entries or deleted companies.

Due diligence - check counterparties before signing. Include deleted companies to see a name's full history.

Sales prospecting - search by keyword (e.g. "Solar", "Logistik", "Software") and discover registered companies in your target industry, complete with location and legal form.

Data pipelines - batch up to 50 searches per run, export as Excel, CSV, or JSON, or push directly into your CRM via API, Make, Zapier, or n8n.

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How to use

1. Enter one or more search terms - full company names, partial names, or keywords
2. Pick a match mode: contain all keywords (broad) or exact company name (precise)
3. Optionally include deleted companies for history checks
4. Run - results appear as a clean table, ready for export

Example input

{
  "searchTerms": ["Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft", "Mustermann Bau"],
  "keywordOption": "all",
  "resultsPerSearch": 25,
  "includeDeleted": false
}

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Why the built-in rate limiting?

The official portal enforces strict request limits. This Actor handles that for you: searches run sequentially with a configurable delay (default 6 seconds) and automatic backoff on temporary blocks. That makes runs slightly slower - but reliable. For large batches, schedule multiple runs.

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FAQ

Is this legal? Yes. German company register data is public by law (Section 9 HGB - "Die Einsichtnahme in das Handelsregister ... ist jedem zu Informationszwecken gestattet"). Since 2022 the portal is free to use without registration. This Actor only reads the public search results any visitor sees.

Which registers are covered? All German register types that appear in the portal search: HRB (companies), HRA (partnerships), VR (associations), GnR (cooperatives), PR (partnerships), GsR.

Does it return financial statements or documents? No - this Actor focuses on fast, structured register records. Document retrieval (AD/CD printouts) may come as a separate feature; request it via an issue if you need it.

How fresh is the data? Live - every run queries the official register at that moment.

Can I search all of Germany at once? Yes, searches cover all 16 federal states and all register courts by default.

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Pricing

Pay-per-event: a small fee per company record found. No results = no result fees. No subscription, no minimum.

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Support

Missing a field or need a feature (register court filter, legal form filter, document retrieval)? Open an issue on this page - actively maintained.