[scirob]

Looks like as per 2022 it is possible to register a GMBH in Germany fully online https://www.brak.de/newsroom/news/gmbh-und-ug-koennen-ab-1-a... also https://www.ihk.de/stuttgart/fuer-unternehmen/recht-und-steu... here are the online notaries: https://online.notar.de/

Firma.de estimates 6 weeks https://www.firma.de/en/company-formation/how-to-set-up-a-gm...

beglaubigt.de estimates 3 weeks https://beglaubigt.de/ug-gruenden

Holvi estimates 4 weeks https://blog.holvi.com/de/gmbh-oder-ug-gr%C3%BCnden-2025-abl...

[prasoon2211]

I founded a UG and a GmbH in 2024. It took me 3 months total including visits to the notary (who charges a non-insignificant sum for their services).

I did this as a subsidiary for a US company and literally had to email and call people every few days to move the process along (mostly, it was the banks who somehow expected us to be a multi-national company and wanted to charge an arm and a leg just to let us open a bank account. Most banks outright refused us).

When the notary finally filed the paperwork to the court, the court replied after a few weeks with additional clarifications for which we had to go AGAIN to the notary to do the whole song and dance of them chanting at us in German at 1000 words per minute.

Everything took painfully long and delayed investment for while. People have absolutely no idea how painful it is to merely have the incorporated entity available. Then, it takes a few weeks to get your tax ID - this is when you can start employing people / accepting payments etc.

[woodson]

The bank issues/refusals may have something to do with FATCA. If you have anything to do with the US in terms of taxes, many EU banks don’t want you as their customer. If it’s a subsidiary of a foreign company, then a lot of paperwork is required to prove that the foreign owners actually exist.

[hobofan]

With experience and optimal prerequisites (good connections to a notary, single founder with default bylaws and no asset transfer into the company) you can do it in ~4 days, e.g. for a holding company.

I did it in ~2 weeks last year, where almost a week was caused by the coworking space I rent at not notifying me of the physical mail from the court. If that physical mail would be eliminated from the process you could probably do it in 2 days.

Apart from that, for any non-trivial situation, the majority of the time will be determined by how fast you can proceed through the process of adjusting your bylaws, etc. and evaluating tax situation (so lawyer + tax advisor waiting time).

(after that the process of waiting for a tax ID starts, which depending on where you live can easily be the slowest part and take ~6 weeks on its own.)