Germany's e-signature framework rests on two pillars: the EU-wide eIDAS Regulation (No. 910/2014) and the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB), implemented domestically through the Trust Services Act (Vertrauensdienstegesetz, VDG), in force since July 2017.

eIDAS establishes three tiers of electronic signature recognized across the EU. Simple Electronic Signatures (SES) are the baseline: any data in electronic form logically associated with other data and used by the signer to sign. Advanced Electronic Signatures (AES) add stronger requirements, including unique linkage to the signatory, creation using data under their sole control, and tamper-evidence that reveals any later change to the signed data. Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) require a qualified certificate from a Trust Service Provider supervised by the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency), Germany's national QTSP oversight body.

Under German civil law, §126 BGB defines the traditional written form (Schriftform) as requiring a handwritten signature, or, per §126a BGB, a qualified electronic signature as its electronic equivalent. No lower signature level satisfies Schriftform. Where German law doesn't specifically require Schriftform, parties are generally free to contract in whatever form they choose, a principle known as Formfreiheit, and that's where SES and AES apply without issue.

The most significant recent shift is the Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act (Viertes Bürokratieentlastungsgesetz, BEG IV), effective January 1, 2025. BEG IV replaced the Schriftform requirement with the lighter Textform requirement (§126b BGB) for commercial lease agreements and substantial parts of employment documentation, including employee leasing contracts. Textform only requires a legible, attributable statement on a durable medium, no signature at all technically, though a clear SES or AES strengthens evidentiary weight considerably. This converted a large category of previously QES-only commercial documents into ones Firma.dev's SES/AES workflows can fully handle.

A short, well-defined list of exceptions still requires QES or a wet-ink signature. Employment termination notices and termination agreements (§623 BGB) explicitly exclude electronic form entirely; even a QES doesn't satisfy this, and only a handwritten, wet-ink signature works. Consumer loan agreements (§492 BGB) require Schriftform, satisfiable only by QES. Suretyship declarations by non-merchants (§766 BGB) and abstract debt acknowledgments (§§780-781 BGB) likewise require Schriftform. Real estate transfers and most corporate resolutions require notarization under the Beurkundungsgesetz (Notarization Act), where the notary, not the signing parties, applies the relevant qualified signature. Germany has been rolling out online notarization via video conference for GmbH formations since August 2022, with broader electronic on-site certification expected to become standard practice around 2026.

For the standard B2B SaaS use case, software licenses, subscription agreements, MSAs, NDAs, vendor contracts, and, since BEG IV, most commercial leases and employment paperwork short of termination, SES and AES cover the overwhelming majority of what German businesses need to sign.