This source tracks the Handelsgesetzbuch — the German Commercial Code — as published on gesetze-im-internet.de, the official federal law portal. The HGB was passed in 1897 and came into force on 1 January 1900. It contains the core of German commercial law, and its Book 3 holds the accounting and financial reporting provisions that govern German statutory accounts, including the rules on recognition, measurement, disclosure and audit requirements for companies.
What this source covers
- The consolidated text of the HGB, updated as amendments take effect
- Book 3 in particular, the accounting provisions applied by every German company preparing statutory accounts
- Official English translations of the code, published alongside the German text
- Amendment history traceable to the Federal Law Gazette
Why it matters for compliance teams
This is a primary legal text rather than a regulator, and it is the foundation everything else in the German accounting stack sits on: DRSC standards elaborate it, IDW pronouncements interpret it, and BaFin and the Bundesbank build supervisory requirements on top of it. Changes are infrequent but consequential, and they arrive through amending acts that are easy to miss if you only watch supervisory publications.
Seqlense DOC indexes the consolidated text with version history alongside the standards and guidance built on it, so a German finance team can see what the statute said on any given date.