Register a birth

When a baby is born in Germany, the birth must be reported to the Standesamt in the place of birth, usually within one week. The birth certificate (Geburtsurkunde) is issued afterwards, from the birth register.

In short

• For a live birth in a hospital or another institution covered by section 20, the institution must notify the Standesamt of the place of birth in writing within one week. Otherwise, a parent with custody must report within that week. If the custodial parents are prevented from reporting or their whereabouts are unknown, a person who was present at the birth or has personal knowledge of it must report.
• A stillbirth must be reported at the latest on the third Werktag after the birth. Section 31 of the Civil Status Ordinance defines that case: after separation from the womb there is no sign of life, and the birth weight is at least 500 grams or the 24th week of pregnancy has been reached. Below both thresholds it is generally a miscarriage, with voluntary documentation. If it is part of a multiple birth in which at least one child must be registered as live-born or stillborn, the miscarriage is registered as a stillbirth and the shorter reporting deadline applies.
• The Geburtsurkunde is issued from the register after the birth is reported. Waiting for the certificate does not fulfil the one-week reporting requirement. Ask the Standesamt about its fee.
• A baby born in Germany is registered with the Meldebehörde only if the baby is taken into a dwelling other than the dwelling of the parents or the mother. Kindergeld is a separate application.

What you need to know

Section 18 of the Civil Status Act says the birth is reported within one week to the Standesamt in whose district the child was born. For a birth in a hospital or another institution covered by section 20, the institution has the duty to report in writing.

The section also covers other institutions providing obstetric care, psychiatric facilities, youth-welfare institutions and the detention facilities it names. Parents retain a right to report and must supply information the institution cannot give, including the child’s name. Outside those institutions, the people named in section 19 report orally or in writing.

A stillbirth must be reported at the latest on the third Werktag after the birth. Section 31 of the Civil Status Ordinance is the definition that triggers that duty. After separation from the womb, none of the signs of life in that section has appeared: the heart has not beaten, the umbilical cord has not pulsed, and natural breathing has not started. The child also weighs at least 500 grams, or the 24th week of pregnancy has been reached.

If the weight is under 500 grams and the 24th week has not been reached, it is a miscarriage. A miscarriage is generally not entered in the register. A person who would have had custody may still notify the Standesamt and ask for a certificate.

If the miscarriage is part of a multiple birth in which at least one child must be registered, section 31(3) treats it as a stillbirth. The statute uses the word Werktag. This page does not restate a judicial definition of that word. The people who report under section 19 must make the birth credible.

Where the institutional duty under section 20 does not apply, section 19 puts the duty first on each parent who has custody. Another person who was present at the birth, or who knows of it from their own knowledge, must report only if the parents with custody are prevented from reporting or are of unknown whereabouts.

The birth register records the child’s given names and birth name, the place and the day, hour, and minute of birth, the child’s sex, and the given names, family names, and sex of the parents. A stillbirth records the place, time, sex, and parents, with a note that the child was stillborn. Names are added at the request of a person who would have had legal responsibility for the child’s personal care had the child been born alive.

If both parents would have had that responsibility and they have no shared family name, a family name for the child is entered only if they agree on one parent’s name. The entry can also point to the parents’ foreign nationality when it is proved, to the parents’ marriage when they are married to each other, and to the other references section 21 lists.

A confidential birth under the statute named in section 21 follows a narrower entry. This page does not describe that procedure.

If the parents are not married to each other at the birth, legal paternity normally comes through acknowledgement (Vaterschaftsanerkennung) or a court decision under section 1592. Section 1593 can also make a former husband the legal father if the marriage ended by his death and the child is born within 300 days, subject to its rules on a longer conception period and remarriage.

Ask the Standesamt about complex cases. Acknowledgement normally needs the mother’s consent under section 1595, but her consent is not required if she has died. The child’s separate consent is also required. For a child under 14, section 1596 says the legal representative gives that consent; where the mother has custody for this purpose, her consent to the acknowledgement also counts as the representative’s consent for the child.

Acknowledgement does not by itself create joint custody. Under section 1626a, joint custody needs custody declarations (Sorgeerklärungen), a later marriage, or a family-court order. Otherwise the mother has custody. The Pregnancy and birth guide covers those steps.

A Geburtsurkunde contains the child’s given names and birth name, the child’s sex, the place and the day, hour, and minute of birth, and the parents’ given names and family names. On request, the sex and the parents’ names are left out. Section 55 says the Standesamt that keeps the register entry issues the certificate. You may also request it through another Standesamt if the necessary data can be transmitted to that office electronically. Ask the office about its fee.

Address registration is a different act. Section 17 of the Federal Registration Act says a baby born in Germany is registered with the Meldebehörde only if the baby is taken into a dwelling other than the dwelling of the parents or the mother. Kindergeld is a separate application. The Pregnancy and birth guide covers care, birth preparation, maternity protection and the first steps afterwards; this page explains civil birth registration.

What to do

1. If a live birth is in a hospital or another section 20 institution, confirm its written report to the Standesamt of the place of birth within one week. Ask what you must still sign or bring, and supply information the institution cannot give, including the child’s name. Outside those institutions, a parent with custody must report a live birth within one week. If the custodial parents are prevented from reporting or their whereabouts are unknown, a person who was present at the birth or has personal knowledge of it must report.
2. When reporting the birth yourself, you need to provide credible evidence of it under section 18. Ask the office which documents to bring.
3. Read the register entry before you order certificates. Section 21 says what the register records. Section 59 says what the Geburtsurkunde contains, and that sex and the parents’ names can be omitted on request.
4. Request the certificate from the Standesamt that keeps the entry, or through another Standesamt if the data can be sent there electronically. Do not treat the certificate fee of one city as a national price.

Avoid unnecessary document-service costs

Ask the Standesamt directly which foreign parental documents, translations or authentication it needs before ordering them. Check the documents-and-translations guide first. Order birth certificates through the office’s official route and confirm the number and purpose of copies you actually need. An optional private ordering service may charge separately from the certificate fee; it does not replace the birth notification or registration.

Agree the child’s registered name

Ask the Standesamt about the given names and surname before completing the name declaration. Establish the applicable name law, all nationalities and any choice of law; a foreign passport or one parent’s preferred spelling does not settle every registration question. The ordinary German-law surname route depends on whether the parents have a common married name and who has custody.

Under section 1616, a child receives the parents’ married name. If the parents have no married name and share custody, section 1617 allows either parent’s surname or a double name from both, with or without a hyphen and subject to limits for existing multi-part names. If no determination is made within one month after birth, the statutory alphabetical double-name rule applies, with a court route if a parent rejects it. This naming period does not extend the one-week birth-notification deadline.

With sole custody and no married name, section 1617a ordinarily gives the child the sole-custody parent’s surname; permitted declarations for another name have their own consent and certification conditions. Tell the office about acknowledgements of parenthood, custody declarations and existing common children before choosing a surname. After birth registration, these name declarations must be publicly certified. For a later change rather than the first naming, use Name changes.

Common mistakes

• Reporting to the Standesamt of the parents’ home town when the child was born in another district. Section 18 follows the place of birth.
• Waiting for a Geburtsurkunde and treating that wait as the one-week report. The report comes first.
• Registering the baby at the Meldebehörde in every case. Section 17 requires that registration only when the baby moves into a different dwelling from the parents or the mother.