Information available to the general public

The following information can be accessed via the Domain Query:

• The status of the domain, i.e. registered/unregistered;
• The technical data of the domain, and
• Information for establishing contact:
  
  
  • General Request
    (This is the contact point to which you can send general and technical requests concerning the domain.)
  • Abuse
    (This is the contact point to which you can send enquiries and information about possible unlawful or improper use of the domain.)

Information for Domain Holders

If you are the holder of a domain, you can request all related data registered in the DENIC database via the Domain Query.

Access to Domain Holder Data for Third Parties

The nature and extent of the domain data that is made available via the domain query is restricted. The data of the domain holder will not be displayed.

In compliance with its legal obligations, DENIC will provide information about the domain holder to

• Public authorities acting within the framework of their public powers (including law enforcement, hazard prevention or seizing orders).

DENIC will also disclose the holder data, on the basis of case-by-case assessments and upon submission of evidence of a legitimate interest, to

• Parties who own a right to a name or trademark that may be infringed by the domain, or
• Claimants who have obtained an enforceable title against the domain holder and seek judicial seizure of the domain holder's claims defined in the domain contract, under civil law, or
• Insolvency administrators for the assets of an (alleged) domain holder.

In order to facilitate submitting such information requests, we have compiled appropriate forms and further information for you.

In all other cases, DENIC will normally not provide any information.

Background Information

DENIC's Domain Query lookup service is compliant with the provisions of the European General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) applicable from 25 May 2018, which regulate the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data. The data output is driven by the principle of data economy.

Those data relating to the technical contact and zone administrator (Tech-C, Zone-C) as well as to the administrative contact (Admin-C) formerly output via the Domain Query are not recorded and consequently not displayed anymore.

The two contact points General Request and Abuse that are recorded in addition to the domain holder data are non-personalised. They are under the registrar's responsibility.

DENIC continues recording and publishing such technical data, including name server or DNS key information, that is needed to establish the functionality of the domain.

DENIC public-whois

Next to the domain query service, DENIC offers a command-line-based public whois, which can be used to query the technical data of a .de domain via port 43.

To query the status of a domain, please use whois.denic – to query the technical data and the date of the last change to the domain data please use "whois -h whois.denic.de -T dn <domain.de>".