Getting a birth certificate from Germany

German birth certificate
German missions do not hold German civil records and cannot issue them. The registry office of the German town where the event happened is the only source.

German birth, marriage and death certificates come from the Standesamt, the registry office, of the municipality where the event was recorded. There is no national register you can write to, and no consulate that can look it up for you.

Finding the right registry office

Records sit with the town where the birth was registered, which is not always the town the family came from. Hospitals in a district town shift the registration there.

If the borders moved, the record may now be held by a successor office in Germany rather than in the place itself. That applies to a great many eastern records.

Most Standesämter accept a written request and many take one online. They will ask who you are and why you need it, because access is restricted to the person and close relatives.

Where German civil records come from

What it costs and how long it takes

Fees are set by each municipality and are modest, usually a small double-digit euro figure per certificate.

Turnaround is usually a few weeks by post. Ask for the international multilingual version if the certificate is for use outside Germany: it saves a translation.

Nothing here is charged by a consulate, because no consulate is involved.

When you need one for a German procedure

Passport applications, name declarations and citizenship files all rest on these certificates, and they are the usual reason a file stalls.

Order them early. The wait for a certificate from a small German town is the part of the timeline you cannot compress later.

Certificates for use in the United States may need an apostille, and that is a separate step handled in Germany.

Who issues what

Document Who issues it
German birth certificate Standesamt of the town of registration
German marriage certificate Standesamt where the marriage was recorded
German death certificate Standesamt of the place of death
Apostille on any of them The authority of the German state, not a consulate
US birth certificate The vital records office of the US state

Which case applies to you

I do not know which town registered the birth
Start from the family’s last known address and work with the Standesamt there. They can often point to the right office even when the record is not theirs.
The town is now in Poland or Russia
Many records from the former eastern territories were transferred to the Standesamt I in Berlin, which holds them centrally. That is the office to write to.
I need it for a US court
Ask for the international version and then have it apostilled in Germany. A German mission in the United States cannot apostille it.
The registry office will not send it to me
Access is limited to the person concerned and close relatives. Show the chain of relationship with your own certificates and the request usually goes through.
 Ask for the international multilingual certificate. It is accepted across most of Europe and the Americas without a translation. 
What to have ready
  • The full name at birth, including any spelling variants
  • Date and place of birth, as precisely as you have it
  • Parents’ full names
  • Proof of your own relationship, if you are not the person named
  • A copy of your photo ID
All procedures
Fees and requirements
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