Germany Contract Handbook

Practical drafting reference for German contract law — form requirements, AGB rules, standard clauses, contract types, and consumer-mandatory documents. Plus a structured JSON knowledge base for AI document-generation agents.

Drafting reference for contracts under German civil law. Built around the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB) form-requirements regime (§§ 125-129), the AGB content-control framework (§§ 305-310), and the country’s specific commercial, employment, and consumer-protection statutes. Every entry ships as both a prose page (for humans) and a JSON data file (for AI agents).

Foundation

Cross-handbook reference resources. Read these first when drafting any specific contract type — they cover the rules that apply across all categories.

• Form requirements — Schriftform vs Textform vs Elektronische Form vs Beurkundung; § 125-129 BGB; substitution rules; consequences of non-compliance
• AGB rules — § 305-310 BGB; Klauselverbote with and without Wertungsmöglichkeit; B2B vs B2C application
• Standard clauses — Gerichtsstand, Rechtswahl, Salvatorische Klausel, Force Majeure, Vertragsstrafe, Streitbeilegung, GDPR confidentiality

Contract types

Business-to-business

• NDA — Geheimhaltungsvereinbarung
• Dienstvertrag — service / consulting contract
• Werkvertrag — work-for-results contract
• Kaufvertrag — sales contract
• Softwarelizenzvertrag — IT licensing
• Vertriebsvertrag — distribution / dealer agreement
• Absichtserklärung — Letter of Intent
• Wettbewerbsverbot — non-compete clause

Employment

• Arbeitsvertrag — employment contract
• Aufhebungsvertrag — mutual termination

Consumer (B2C-mandatory documents)

Documents that any consumer-facing online business in Germany must publish:

• Widerrufsbelehrung — withdrawal notice (§ 312g BGB)
• Impressum — provider identification (§ 5 TMG)
• Datenschutzerklärung — privacy notice (Art. 13/14 GDPR)

Open dataset

The full Germany handbook is published as machine-readable JSON, validated against the shared schema.

• Aggregated bundle — data/handbook/de.json — single fetch with every record
• Per-record JSON files — data/handbook/de/ — one file per entry
• Schema — data/handbook/schema.json

For AI agents, the API documentation describes the bundle URL pattern, schema fields, and example agent workflow.

License

Content licensed under CC-BY 4.0. Attribution: “Source: Chaindoc Labs — labs.chaindoc.io/handbook/de/”.

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Disclaimer: Handbook content is informational, not legal advice. Last verified 2026-05-10. Always consult licensed counsel for binding decisions.

Maintained by the Chaindoc team.