.DE is the country code TLD (ccTLD) for Germany and is regulated by DENIC eG.
Registration requirements
The name length requirements for .DE domains are one to 63 characters before the TLD. Third-level domain registrations for .DE is not supported.
Residency requirements
.DE domains can be registered from any owner country. Local presence is no longer required as of May 2018.
When the registrant is not located in Germany, an authorized contact located in Germany who can receive official or court documents on their behalf is required. The contact must be provided to the registry within two weeks upon request.
Nameserver requirements
Activation requires at least two functional name servers. Nameservers must be active on two different subnets and must be authoritative for the domain name at registration. The registry NAST tool verifies the functionality of the name servers.
Enom's default name servers can be used during domain registration.
When a name is registered, and the nameservers are not active, the registrant has 30-days to activate and park the name on them. If the 30-day periods complete without active nameservers, DENIC deletes the domain name without providing any refund.
The nameservers associated with the domain name can be modified during the 30-day period, subject to DENIC verification. If the name servers do not meet DENIC criteria, the change request is ignored.
Renewals
All .DE domains are set to auto-renew. There is no grace period for .DE domains as they enter the redemption period immediately after expiry.
The redemption period is 30 days after deletion. Within this period, the domain can only be re-registered on behalf of the last domain holder or in the name of a third party defined by the domain holder.
Transfers
Auth codes are required for all .DE transfers. The auth code expires after 30 days.
Unlike standard gTLD domains, which have 60-day post-registration transfer-hold restriction for the registrar to registrar transfers, .DE transfer in and transfer away is not restricted to any hold period. This means that a transfer can be performed at any time after a domain is registered.