Guide · Germany · Insolvenzbekanntmachungen

What is Insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de?

Q: What does "IN" in a file number mean?

It marks an insolvency docket, as in 8 IN 648/26: chamber 8, insolvency, case 648 of 2026.

Q: What is Insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de?

It is the single federal portal on which Germany's insolvency courts publish the announcements the Insolvenzordnung requires - protective measures, opening, dismissal for lack of assets, insolvency plans, self-administration, closure and discharge. Publication there is the legally effective public notice under section 9 InsO.

Germany publishes every court insolvency announcement on one federal portal, then deletes it within months. Here is what the portal is, what it is not, and how to keep the history it throws away.

The short version

Insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de is the portal on which, in its own words, the insolvency courts of the Federal Republic of Germany make the announcements the Insolvenzordnung prescribes. Under § 9 InsO a public announcement is made on the internet, and this portal is where that happens, so publication there is the legally effective notice, not a courtesy copy. The Länder justice administrations run it jointly; there is no separate portal per state.

It is not a company register. Company identity in Germany lives in the Handelsregister, kept by the local courts, and an insolvency announcement refers to a registered company by its HRB or HRA number rather than holding any company data of its own. Anyone who searches Insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de expecting a company profile is looking in the wrong place; anyone who searches the Handelsregister expecting the insolvency history is also looking in the wrong place.

What the courts publish there

An insolvency proceeding leaves a trail of announcements, each one a separate publication with its own date:

Stage	German term	What it means for a counterparty
Protective measures	Sicherungsmaßnahmen, vorläufiger Insolvenzverwalter	A petition has been filed and the court has appointed a provisional administrator. The company is still trading, usually under supervision.
Opening	Eröffnung des Insolvenzverfahrens	Proceedings are open. Creditors must file claims; payments to the debtor no longer discharge a debt.
Dismissal for lack of assets	Abweisung mangels Masse	The estate cannot even cover the costs of proceedings. For a company this usually ends in deletion from the register.
Restructuring	Eigenverwaltung, Schutzschirmverfahren, Insolvenzplan	Management stays in charge under a supervisor, or a plan is being negotiated. The business is meant to survive.
Closure	Einstellung, Aufhebung	Proceedings end, either because they ran their course or because assets ran out along the way.
Discharge	Restschuldbefreiung	Applies to natural persons only: remaining debts are wiped after the good-conduct period.

Each announcement names the court, the file number in the form 3608 IN 3683/26 (the IN marks an insolvency docket), the date, the debtor's name and seat, and for companies the Handelsregister number. By count, consumer insolvencies of private individuals outnumber corporate ones on the portal; the two sit side by side and nothing in the search separates them for you.

Two rules that catch people out

The portal is governed by the InsoBekV, the ordinance on public insolvency announcements on the internet. Two of its rules explain most of the surprises.

Announcements are deleted. § 3 InsoBekV requires deletion no later than six months after the proceeding is lifted or its closure becomes final. If proceedings were never opened, the six months run from the withdrawal of the protective measures. Most other announcements are deleted one month after first publication, and restructuring announcements within six months of the instrument being ordered. The consequence is that the portal is a rolling window, not an archive: a company that went through insolvency two years ago has simply vanished from it, and a search that finds nothing proves nothing about the past.

Some searches need the file number. § 2 InsoBekV requires that announcements about private individuals without independent economic activity become searchable, two weeks after publication, only by the court plus the person's name, residence or the court's file number. That rule protects consumers; it does not apply to companies, whose announcements remain openly searchable for as long as they are published. If a search by name alone returns nothing for a private individual, it is the two-week rule at work, not an absence of proceedings.

Querying German insolvencies from an API

Prometiam serves German corporate insolvency notices from the portal through the same endpoint as France, the UK, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, the US, the Netherlands, Denmark, Croatia, Sweden, Spain, Latvia and Estonia, and keeps the history the portal itself deletes.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer rk_live_..." \
  "https://api.prometiam.com/functions/v1/risk-api/insolvency/search?country=DE&name=foodworld"

Each record carries the court line as published — date, file number, court, debtor and seat — the announcement text, a link to the notice on the portal, the city, and a normalised event_type: insolvency for an opening, restructuring for self-administration, protective-shield and plan proceedings, liquidation for a closure for lack of assets, winding_up for a lifting. Filter by event_type, date_from and date_to, or look a debtor up by company_number using the Handelsregister number as the notice prints it.

Being straight about the limits: notices are not linked to company records, so the Handelsregister number is served as printed and only where the announcement prints one. Consumer insolvencies are never returned. If you need German company profiles, directors or filings, this is not the tool; German companies that hold an LEI are served separately, see the German company data API.

FAQ

Is Insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de the Handelsregister?
No. The Handelsregister is the company register. The portal publishes insolvency announcements only and quotes the register number.

Why has an insolvency disappeared from the portal?
§ 3 InsoBekV: deletion no later than six months after the proceeding is lifted or closed, one month for most other announcements. Keep your own history if you need it.

Why does a name search return nothing for a person?
§ 2 InsoBekV: two weeks after publication, announcements about private individuals need the court plus the name, residence or file number. Companies are unaffected.

What does "IN" in a file number mean?
It marks an insolvency docket, as in 8 IN 648/26: chamber 8, insolvency, case 648 of 2026.

Does Prometiam hold German company data?
Not the commercial register. German company records cover LEI-registered entities and energy-market register companies (see the German company data API); the insolvency notices are not linked to them.