Insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de is the single federal portal on which Germany's insolvency courts publish every announcement the Insolvenzordnung requires: protective measures, the opening of proceedings, dismissal for lack of assets, insolvency plans, self-administration, closure and discharge. Publication there is the legally effective public notice under § 9 InsO. It is not a company register — identity lives in the Handelsregister, and an announcement quotes the debtor's HRB or HRA number when it has one.
Both come from the InsoBekV, the ordinance that governs the portal. First, announcements are deleted no later than six months after the proceeding is lifted or its closure becomes final; if proceedings were never opened, six months from the withdrawal of protective measures; most other announcements go after one month. The portal is a rolling window, not an archive, so a company that was insolvent two years ago is simply no longer there. Second, for private individuals without a business, a search two weeks after publication must supply the court plus the name, residence or file number. Corporate announcements carry no such restriction.
The court, the file number in the form "3608 IN 3683/26", the date, the debtor's name and seat, the stage of the proceeding and, for companies, the Handelsregister number. Consumer insolvencies outnumber corporate ones on the portal; Prometiam serves the corporate ones only.
Prometiam serves German corporate insolvency notices through GET /insolvency/search?country=DE, keeping history the portal itself deletes. Each record carries the court line, the announcement text, a link to the notice and a normalised event type. Notices are not linked to company records, because no German company register is held; the Handelsregister number is served as printed on the notice.
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Official source: insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de · InsoBekV (Bundesministerium der Justiz)
| 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. |