.de WHOIS Lookup
.de is the country-code extension of Germany, administered by DENIC. Look up a .de address and see which fields the reply carries.
- 1.494 extensions
- IANA 1601 ICANN accredited
- 2 protocols — RDAP and WHOIS
Your IP address 216.73.216.31
.de WHOIS Lookup: DENIC Records and Their Fields
.de is Germany's country code extension, delegated into the root zone on 5 November 1986 and run by DENIC eG, a cooperative based in Frankfurt am Main. The zone carries a DS record in the root, so it is signed with DNSSEC. Queries are answered by the registry's own server, whois.denic.de, on port 43. In our measurement on 12 August 2026 a bare query returned only two lines; the name server records and the change date appeared only when the query was sent with the -T dn prefix.
Sent with -T dn, the full reply consists of four fields: the domain name, its name server records, a status and the date of the last change; a bare query returns only the first and the third. The registrant, the general request address and the abuse contact never appear here — DENIC states this in the notice at the head of every reply and points to its own web-based interface for those details. There is no creation date and no expiry date either; the only date a .de record carries is when it last changed.
The practical consequence is direct: you cannot learn how old a .de address is, or when it runs out, from WHOIS output — DENIC simply never opens those two fields. The connect value on the status line is not an EPP code either; DENIC uses its own vocabulary, and that value says the name is registered and its name servers are correctly set up. To compare neighbouring markets, the .at WHOIS lookup and .nl WHOIS lookup pages show the same measurement for those extensions.
About the .de extension
- Extension
- .de
- WHOIS server
- whois.denic.de
- RDAP endpoint
- This extension has no RDAP endpoint in the IANA bootstrap registry.
- Registry
- DENIC eG — a cooperative based in Frankfurt am Main
- Delegated
- 5 November 1986
- Query syntax
- -T dn example.de — a bare query returns only the domain and its status
- Published fields
- Domain and status on a bare query; name servers and last change date with -T dn
- Withheld fields
- Registrant, creation date, expiry date, abuse contact
WHOIS FAQ
Why does a .de WHOIS lookup show no owner details?
The reply DENIC serves on port 43 contains no registrant and no contact addresses at all. The registry treats this as policy rather than as a gap, and the notice at the head of the reply points to its own web-based WHOIS interface for those fields. The name does have a registered holder — the record is complete, that section is simply not opened on this channel. The name servers, status and change date you do see come straight from the registry's live database.
Does a .de WHOIS record show the registration date?
It does not. DENIC's reply carries no creation date and no expiry date; in the 12 August 2026 measurement the only date present was the Changed line, meaning when the record was last modified. That makes it impossible to calculate the age of a .de domain from WHOIS. The change date marks the moment the record was last edited, so a name server change or a holder update pushes it forward — it does not tell you when the name was first taken.
What does the -T dn prefix do in a .de WHOIS query?
The -T dn prefix tells the DENIC server that the object being asked about is a domain record. In our measurement the bare query for google.de returned just two lines: the domain and its status. Sent as -T dn google.de, the same query also returned the name server records and the last change date. So if a .de result shows only the domain and its status, the record is not incomplete: the query went out in its bare form, and DENIC opens the other two fields only to the prefixed one.
Does .de have an RDAP endpoint, and how do I query it?
IANA's RDAP bootstrap registry defines no endpoint for .de, and our measurement on 12 August 2026 confirms it. ICANN's transition policy, in force since 28 January 2025, binds generic extensions; .de is a country code extension and falls outside that policy, so DENIC is under no obligation to offer RDAP. In practice this means the port 43 WHOIS service is the only machine-readable source of .de registration data.
What does the connect status mean in a .de record?
The connect value comes from DENIC's own status vocabulary and is not one of the standard EPP codes. It means the domain is registered, its name servers are correctly configured and the name resolves. When you see it in a result, the address is technically live. For a name that is not taken, DENIC returns free instead; confusing the two values is what leads people to read a registered name as an available one.
Can a WHOIS record tell me if a .de name is available?
Yes. Query a .de name that nobody holds and DENIC returns free on the status line, with no name server lines at all. A registered name comes back as connect. So the availability question is answered cleanly for .de even though registrant details are withheld. To see the result for yourself, type the name you have in mind into the search box.
How often is .de WHOIS data refreshed?
The reply comes from DENIC's live database, so it reflects the state at the moment of the query. Our own server caches a result for six hours when the name is registered and five minutes when it looks available; the second window is short because a name that looks free can be taken within minutes. The change date field, separately, records when the registry itself last edited that record.
Why is .de WHOIS output so different from .com output?
The two extensions answer to two different rule sets. .com is a generic extension, and ICANN contracts require the registrar name, the creation and expiry dates and an abuse contact to be published. .de is a country code extension, so DENIC decides for itself what to disclose and settles on four fields. To compare the same query across both, the .com WHOIS lookup page shows the measurement there.