.de - Wikipedia

Internet country-code top level domain for Germany For The ccTLD associated with East Germany, see .dd..de

Introduced	5 November 1986; 39 years ago (1986-11-05)
TLD type	Country code top-level domain
Status	Active
Registry	DENIC
Sponsor	DENIC eG
Intended use	Entities connected with Germany
Actual use	Overwhelmingly popular in Germany and gets some use overseas, also used for domain hacks (e.g. alongsi.de)
Registered domains	17,639,014 (2025-03-31)[1]
Registration restrictions	None
Structure	May register at second level
Dispute policies	DISPUTE-Entries
DNSSEC	Yes
Registry website	denic.de

.de is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Germany. DENIC (the Network Information Centre responsible for .de domains) does not require specific second-level domains, and there are no official ccSLDs under .de ccTLD, as it is the case with the .uk domain range which until 2014 required .co.uk domain for example.

Namesake

[edit]

The name is based on the first two letters of the German name for Germany (Deutschland). Prior to 1990, East Germany had a separate ISO 3166-1 code (dd), and had never delegated a ccTLD, .dd.

Usage

[edit]

.de is currently the second most popular ccTLD in terms of number of registrations with .cn being the first most popular ccTLD and .uk being third. It is third after .com and .cn among all TLDs.[2]

The first point of registration for .de domains was at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Dortmund. uni-dortmund.de was among the first registered .de-domains.

.de registrations may be directly ordered from DENIC but it is faster and cheaper to do so via a DENIC member (registrar).[citation needed]

Registration

[edit]

Previously, domain names had to be at least three letters long.

There were a few two-letter domains registered before the rule was put in place: db.de (Deutsche Bahn, German Railways), ix.de (the German computing magazine iX), and hq.de. Another domain, bb.de (Bilfinger Berger), was later deregistered (and after 2009 registered by another company).

As a result of a lawsuit by Volkswagen, which wanted to register the two-letter domain "vw.de",[3] after 23 October 2009, DENIC was forced to allow the registration of single- and two-letter domains as well as number-only domains, such as 123.de, xx.de or v.de.[4]

Registrations of internationalized domain names (IDN) are also accepted so that all diacritics of German, many diacritics of other languages and the eszett, ß, may be used.[5]

In many of the Romance languages, e.g., Spanish, French, Romanian and Portuguese, "de" expresses the genitive of a noun (like "of" in English). This is exploited in domain registrations under the German TLD for romance language webhosts that offer customized sites, like elforo.de (theforum.of), encoding the site name into the URL path, such as elforo.de/wikipedia, meaning theforum.of/Wikipedia.

See also

[edit]

• Internet in Germany
• .dd
• .ag
• .eu –ccTLD for the European Union

Generic geographic domains, connected to Germany

[edit]

• .bayern
• .berlin
• .hamburg
• .nrw (domain)
• .koeln / .cologne
• .ruhr
• .saarland

References

[edit]

1. ^ "DENIC". DENIC. 2 April 2024. Archived from the original on 2 April 2024. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
2. ^ DENIC (September 2018). "Comparison of International Domain Numbers". Archived from the original on 29 October 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
3. ^ Daniel Dingeldey (26 June 2008). "DENIC muss vw.de an Volkswagen vergeben". domain-recht. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
4. ^ "DENIC eG Eases Domain Guidelines". DENIC.
5. ^ "IDN character list". DENIC.

External links

[edit]

• DENIC
• List of DENIC members
• IANA .de whois information
• DNSSEC in the .de Zone

v t e Country code top-level domains
ISO 3166-1     A .ac .ad .ae .af .ag .ai .al .am .ao .aq .ar .as .at .au .aw .ax .az B .ba .bb .bd .be .bf .bg .bh .bi .bj .bm .bn .bo .br .bs .bt .bw .by .bz C .ca .cc .cd .cf .cg .ch .ci .ck .cl .cm .cn .co .cr .cu .cv .cw .cx .cy .cz D .de .dj .dk .dm .do .dz E .ec .ee .eg .er .es .et .eu F .fi .fj .fk .fm .fo .fr G .ga .gd .ge .gf .gg .gh .gi .gl .gm .gn .gp .gq .gr .gs .gt .gu .gw .gy H .hk .hm .hn .hr .ht .hu I .id .ie .il .im .in .io .iq .ir .is .it J .je .jm .jo .jp K .ke .kg .kh .ki .km .kn .kp .kr .kw .ky .kz L .la .lb .lc .li .lk .lr .ls .lt .lu .lv .ly M .ma .mc .md .me .mg .mh .mk .ml .mm .mn .mo .mp .mq .mr .ms .mt .mu .mv .mw .mx .my .mz N .na .nc .ne .nf .ng .ni .nl .no .np .nr .nu .nz O .om P .pa .pe .pf .pg .ph .pk .pl .pm .pn .pr .ps .pt .pw .py Q .qa R .re .ro .rs .ru .rw S .sa .sb .sc .sd .se .sg .sh .si .sk .sl .sm .sn .so .sr .ss .st .su .sv .sx .sy .sz T .tc .td .tf .tg .th .tj .tk .tl .tm .tn .to .tr .tt .tv .tw .tz U .ua .ug .uk .us .uy .uz V .va .vc .ve .vg .vi .vn .vu W .wf .ws Y .ye .yt Z .za .zm .zw
Internationalized (IDN) ccTLD Cyrillic script Arabic script Brahmic scripts Chinese characters Other scripts .бг (bg, Bulgaria) .бел (bieł, Belarus) .ею (eyu, European Union) .қаз (qaz, Kazakhstan) .мон (mon, Mongolia) .мкд (mkd, North Macedonia) .рф (rf, Russia) .срб (srb, Serbia) .укр (ukr, Ukraine) الجزائر. (al-Jazā’ir, Algeria) مصر. (Miṣr, Egypt) بھارت. (Bhārat, India) ایران. (Irân, Iran) الاردن. (al-Urdun, Jordan) فلسطين. (Filasṭin, Palestine) پاکستان. (Pākistān, Pakistan) قطر. (Qaṭar) السعودية. (al-Saudiah, Saudi Arabia) سوريا. (Sūryā, Syria) تونس. (Tunis, Tunisia) امارات. (Emarat, UAE) عمان. (ʻUmān, Oman) مليسيا. (Maleesya, Malaysia) المغرب. (al-Maġrib, Morocco) سودان. (Sūdān, Sudan) اليمن. (al-Yaman, Yemen) .বাংলা (Bāṅla, Bangladesh) .ভাৰত (Bhārat, India) .ভারত (Bhārat, India) .भारत (Bhārat, India) .భారత్ (Bhārat, India) .ભારત (Bhārat, India) .ਭਾਰਤ (Bhārat, India) .ଭାରତ (Bhārata, India) .இந்தியா (Indiyā, India) .ລາວ (Lao, Laos) .சிங்கப்பூர் (Cinkappūr, Singapore) .ලංකා (Laṅkā, Sri Lanka) .இலங்கை (Ilaṅkai, Sri Lanka) .ไทย (Thai, Thailand) .中国 (China, in simplified Chinese) .中國 (China, in traditional Chinese) .香港 (Hong Kong) .澳門 (Macau, trad.) .澳门 (Macau, simp.) .新加坡 (Singapore) .台灣 (Taiwan, trad.) .台湾 (Taiwan, simp.) .հայ (hay, Armenia) .ευ (ey, European Union) .გე (ge, Georgia) .ελ (el, Greece) .한국 (Han-guk, South Korea) ישראל. (Yisrael, Israel) Proposed IDN ccTLDs .κπ (kp, Cyprus) .日本 (Nippon, Japan)
Others Reserved / unassigned Allocated / unused Phased out / deleted .bl .bq .eh .mf .xk .bv .gb .sj .an .bu .cs .dd .tp .um .yu .zr
See also: Generic top-level domains

v t e Germany articles
History	Overviews Timeline Historiography Military history Ancient Germanic peoples Migration Period List of early Germanic peoples Goths Teutons Visigoths History of the Huns Chronology of warfare between the Romans and Germanic peoples Cimbrian War Roman campaigns in Germania (12 BC – AD 16) Marcomannic Wars Gothic Wars Sack of Rome (410) Middle Ages Frankish Empire Treaty of Verdun East Francia Carolingian Empire Carolingian dynasty Holy Roman Empire Ostsiedlung (East Colonisation) Modern Early modern period, 1500–1800 18th-century Confederation of the Rhine German revolutions of 1848–1849 German Confederation Frankfurt Constitution North German Confederation Unification of Germany German Empire World War I War guilt question Revolution of 1918 Weimar Republic Nazi Germany World War II Allied occupation Flight and expulsions Denazification Divided Germany East Germany West Germany Contemporary Reunification History of Germany since 1990 Regions History of Prussia History of Brandenburg Cologne War (1583–1588) Baden Revolution (1848)
Geography	Administrative divisions States Districts Cities and towns Earthquakes Geology Islands Lakes Mountains Rivers
Politics	Bundestag Bundesrat Bundeswehr (military) Chancellor Constitution Court system Elections Federal Government Foreign relations Human rights Intersex LGBT Transgender Law Law enforcement Lobbying Conservatism Nationalism Political parties President
Economy	Agriculture Automobile industry Banking Central bank Chemical Triangle Economic history Energy Exports German model German states by GDP Mittelstand companies Science and technology Stock exchange Taxation Telecommunications Tourism Trade unions Transport Rail Welfare Women
Society	Censorship Crime Corruption Demographics Drug policy Education Germans Ethnic groups Women Healthcare Homelessness Immigration Irreligion Life expectancy Naturism Pensions Pornography Poverty Prostitution Racism Religion Social issues Trade unions Culture Anthem Architecture Art Arts Cinema Coat of arms Cuisine Cultural icons Dance Fashion Festivals Folklore Flag Language Libraries Literature Internet Media Music Names Philosophy Prussian virtues Sport Television World Heritage Sites
Outline Index Bibliography Category Portal

v t e Internet in Europe
Sovereign states	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom
States with limitedrecognition	Abkhazia Kosovo Northern Cyprus South Ossetia Transnistria
Dependencies andother entities	Åland Faroe Islands Gibraltar Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Svalbard
Other entities	European Union