Bundesgesetzblatt (Federal Legal Gazette) Published by:
Bundesministerium der Justiz (Federal Ministry of Justice)
through Bundesamt für Justiz (Federal Office of Justice)
Adenauerallee 99–103 — 53113 Bonn
Germany
Tel. +49 228 99 41040
Fax +49 +49 228 410 5050
E-mail: poststelle@bfj.bund.de
Website: https://www.bundesjustizamt.de
Official journal / legal gazette
There are distinct official publications for primary/secondary legislation (Bundesgesetzblatt) and for legal notices, ministerial circulars and other official texts (Bundesanzeiger); see point 1.2 for details.
First edition
Bundesgesetzblatt No 1, 23 May 1949
Part I: 1949
Part II: 1951
First online edition
Part I: 1998
Part II: 1999
Since 1 January 2023, the online version is the only legally binding version.
Paper edition
Published until 31 December 2022 as the legally binding edition.
Online edition
https://www.recht.bund.de
Access and texts are free
Legally binding version
Online archive for the publications before 1 January 2023: https://www.bgbl.de Available texts
Part I: from 1949
Part II: from 1951
Part I: Federal laws, statutory instruments, official orders and announcements in particular cases
Part II: International agreements and treaties, legislation to implement them, related proclamations, laws regarding custom tariffs
Legal basis
Basic Law (Grundgesetz) Article 82, Promulgation and Announcement Act (Verkündungs- und Bekanntmachungsgesetz – VkBkmG)
Legally binding
Online edition
Financing
State budget
Other gazettes
The Bundesanzeiger (Federal Gazette) has been published since 1949 by the Bundesanzeiger Verlag GmbH. It contains official notices and other legal and judicial announcements. Since 2002 promulgations of statutory instruments, announcements of annual financial statements, official, judicial and other announcements have been published in an electronic series of the federal gazette Bundesanzeiger (https://www.bundesanzeiger.de).
Since 1 January 2023, the Bundesanzeiger contains no promulgation of statutory instruments anymore; these are exclusively published in the Bundesgesetzblatt.
All 16 Länder (States) have their own legal gazettes.
Authenticity and integrity of the PDF files are guaranteed by qualified electronic seals.
Archiving
Each number of the Bundesgesetzblatt must be submitted for permanent storage together with proof of the time of publication. Long-term archiving is guaranteed.
Currently, common text editors (Microsoft Word) are used; files are converted to XML and to PDF using typesetting software applications. However, eNorm, an add-in for Microsoft Word, used for the creation, revision and exchange of official documents in German legislation is widely spread and used more and more.
Workflow
Currently no fully integrated electronic workflow
Proofreading, structuring and publishing on the promulgation platform are carried out by the editorial department of the Federal Office of Justice
Federal Ministry of Justice and the Federal Office of Justice
Content
The Federal Ministry of Justice (Bundesministerium der Justiz) and the Federal Office of Justice (Bundesamt für Justiz) make nearly all German Federal laws and statutory instruments currently in force available online, free of charge. You can access the most recent versions of the laws and statutory instruments, which are continuously updated by the documentation office of the Federal Office of Justice. The texts available on the internet are not official versions of the laws and statutory instruments. These can be found in the Federal Law Gazette which is published electronically on the federal government’s promulgation platform since January 1, 2023. Up to this point in time, the official version of the Federal Law Gazette was only issued in paper form (see also point 1.2).
English translations of numerous important laws and statutory instruments can be accessed.
Furthermore, there is an update service which displays links to all new provisions which have recently been promulgated in Part I of the Federal Law Gazette for up to six months from the date they enter into force. The service also provides the texts of the amendments upon which the consolidated laws and regulations are based. Additionally, you can subscribe to the update service as an RSS feed.
Finally, there are links to other databases that contain laws from the Länder, administrative regulations of the highest federal authorities in Germany as well as decisions made by the Federal Constitutional Court, the Supreme Federal Courts and the Federal Patent Court.
juris GmbH
(in its capacity as provider of a public service)
Content
Almost the entire federal law (current and historical versions that have already been promulgated and those that will come into force in the future) in a version consolidated by the Federal Office of Justice since spring 1990, provided that this is shown in Fundstellennachweis A.
