Urkunde/ Personenstandsurkunde/ Beglaubigten Registerauszug beantragen / Bremerhaven

The registry office Bremerhaven issues civil status certificates:

• Birth certificates
• Death certificates
• marriage certificates
• civil partnership certificates

and certified copies from civil status registers, if the legal event (marriage, establishment of a civil partnership, birth or death) took place in Bremerhaven. Multilingual birth, marriage and death certificates can be issued.

The multilingual extracts of the civil status registers are available in the following languages ( currently not available online ):

French - German - English - Spanish - Greek - Italian - Dutch - Portuguese - Dutch - Portuguese Portuguese - Turkish - Croatian/Bosnian - Polish - Lithuanian - Estonian - Bulgarian.

The following retention periods apply to civil status registers:

• Birth register 110 years
• Marriage register 80 years
• Civil partnership register 80 years
• Death register 30 years

For civil status records dating back longer than this, please contact the Bremerhaven City Archives, Tel.: 0471 590 2567. E-mail: stadtarchiv@magistrat.bremerhaven.de

Until the end of 2008, family registers were kept at the registry office. From 2009 the entries were transferred to the marriage register.

Descent certificates were replaced by the transcript from the birth register from 2009.

As a rule, funeral directors require a power of attorney from the relatives or heirs to apply for civil status certificates.

Entitled to file an application are

• Persons to whom the register entry refers (certified person)
• spouses, life partners
• ancestors and descendants (e.g. children, grandchildren)
• Siblings (applies only to birth and death certificates)
• Other persons who can credibly demonstrate a legal interest or if the person certified has been deceased for 30 years
• Authorities within the scope of their competence, stating the purpose of the document

You can also authorize someone to apply for the documents on your behalf. Parents do not need a power of attorney or the children's identification to apply for a birth certificate for their children. They must have their own identification.

Persons over the age of 16 are eligible to apply.

It is not possible to request/apply for a certificate by email, fax or phone.

We offer the use of an online form where the application is submitted electronically directly to us.

Proof of your identity is provided by presenting your ID card/passport or as a scan in the online form or by sending a copy of the ID document in the case of a paper-based application.
Restrictions apply to

• Persons who have been adopted in lieu of a child (adoption)
• Transsexuals
• persons who are protected by a blocking notice in the civil status register

You can apply for the certificate online. You can find the online form at the bottom of the page under Form. To do this, a legible, double-sided scan of a valid ID document must be sent to us and you will be redirected directly to an online payment system. You will not receive a confirmation of receipt. There is no need for an additional written request if you have requested your document online. This ultimately only triggers an additional paid certificate order.

You can also order the certificate by mail. For each certificate request, a legible (!) and valid copy of identification - ID card or passport (both sides) - must be enclosed as proof of identity.

It is not possible to order documents by telephone, e-mail or fax.

Under Further Links -Online Service you will find the online form. Here you will also find a printable version of the form if you do not want to or cannot submit the application online.

Regardless of the method of application, you may of course black out any data that is not required (e.g. height, eye color, etc.).

The following identification data is required for processing and may not be obscured:

• First and last name
• Date and place of birth
• Validity date
• Address

Requests by mail to the Registry Office Bremerhaven, Am Alten Hafen 118, 27568 Bremerhaven

The Bremerhaven registry office can only issue documents (also multilingual) if the event was notarized in Bremerhaven. I.e.:

• Birth certificates from the birth registry office,
• Marriage certificates from the registry office where the marriage took place,
• Civil partnership certificate from the registry office where the civil partnership was established,
• death certificate from the registry office where the death was registered.

Exception : subsequent certifications of foreign civil status cases, e.g. marriage abroad.