German International Shipping Register (GIS)
Registering in the GIS is voluntary
In addition to the shipping register for sea-going ships, owners of ships can have their ship voluntarily registered in the GIS – the (national) German International Shipping Register. The legal basis is the Flaggenrechtsgesetz (German Flag Act), Section 12.
The main condition is that the ship flies the Federal flag of Germany. Furthermore, these merchant ships have to operate internationally, i.e. being predominantly used
- for the carriage of persons or goods to or from or between foreign ports, within a foreign port, or between a foreign port and the high seas, or
- outside the German jurisdictional waters for towing, recovery, cabel or pipe laying, dredging, discovering natural ressources, installing structures at sea or supplying wind parks at sea.
This allows them to employ foreign seafarers on German-flagged ship while paying a wage to scale with the wage conditions of their home country.
The BSH is the competent flag authority and maintains the GIS, which is also called the second register (Zweitregister). It is not comparable with the shipping registers for sea-going ships of the district courts. It is an appendant to the German non-public Flag Register.
Do you want to take advantage of the German Flag and at the same time benefit from national wage conditions? Please submit the signed application form (only in German language) in the original to the BSH.
