Check a German company by API: what is possible

Handelsregister (register portal of the federal states) · partly covered · checked 11 November 2026

The official route

We found no official API or bulk file for the German commercial register (web check 2026-11-09). What exists is three websites.

The register portal, handelsregister.de. Its terms of use (read 2026-11-06) allow anyone to inspect the register through individual retrievals for information purposes. Register information from the courts has been free of charge since 1 August 2022.
Annual accounts are in the Unternehmensregister for fiscal years starting after 31 December 2021, and in the Bundesanzeiger before that. Viewing published accounts is free.
Insolvency notices are on neu.insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de, the official portal of the federal states. It has a public search form by company name and seat, no API and no published rate limit.

Where it gets hard

The register portal forbids more than 60 searches or entity views per hour, and systematic retrievals to build a parallel register. It blocks IP addresses on suspicion of a breach. You can ask its service desk to exempt a fixed IP address.
Accounts sit behind a CAPTCHA, in both the Unternehmensregister and the Bundesanzeiger. The Unternehmensregister's robots.txt disallows its search and publication pages, and its publisher claims database protection.
The usual shortcut for listed companies is missing. The filings.xbrl.org index of ESEF reports held 0 German filings when we checked on 2026-11-06.
EU rules on high-value datasets require company documents and accounts through an API or bulk download. We found no such offer for Germany.

One call

{"query": "Wirecard AG", "country": "DE"}

Use it with POST https://api.boscolabs.dev/v1/counterparty-check. An insolvency notice is kept only when its register entry matches the one in the LEI record, which for Wirecard is HRB 169227.

Check	Source for this country
Register status	The LEI record (GLEIF); the Handelsregister is not read
Insolvency	insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de, matched on the register number in the LEI record, or on the exact name without one
People on sanctions lists	Not checked: no open source for officers
VAT number	VIES; Germany shares no names through VIES, so the name match stays empty
Company on sanctions lists	OFAC, UN, UK, EU and US export lists
LEI status	GLEIF

$0.05 per company checked, empty and failed calls are free.

What we do not cover

The register's own status, and officers.
Accounts of German companies, unless the company also files with the SEC (SAP does). We expect listed issuers through the EU's ESAP portal, which ESMA is to open by 10 July 2027.
Insolvency notices about natural persons are never searched.
A German company without an LEI is not found. That call costs nothing.

Sources

Get a key: $5.00 free, no card Try the planner without a key

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