Press releases

Less red tape, more time to start a business: Starting a business in Aachen is now easier for sole proprietors. The City of Aachen, together with the Aachen Local Court and the Aachen-Stadt Tax Office, is a pilot site for the nationwide project “G24 – Gemeinsam Schneller Gründen” (Starting a Business Faster Together). The pilot project, launched in May to accelerate business start-ups, is entering its next phase: Starting today, a digital combined application is available that allows sole proprietors to apply for both a business license and tax registration. In Aachen, the combined application can now be submitted entirely digitally. As of today, applying for a tax ID number—one of the two services covered by the combined application—can even be done entirely digitally nationwide. The application process is designed as a one-stop shop and is available at www.gruenden.gov.de.

Digital business registration will be gradually rolled out over the coming weeks to the other nine pilot locations: Berlin, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Fulda (including Petersberg), Goslar, Hamburg, Husum, Mannheim, and Munich. In all other regions, the portal helps users fill out the application and generates a completed document that can be sent to the relevant business registration office via email or mail.

“We Want to Be Pioneers”
Mayor Dr. Michael Ziemons: “We want to be pioneers in digitalization and reducing bureaucracy—not just today, but also in the future. With the online services offered by the One-Stop-Shop, we are taking another step toward a modern, citizen-oriented administration. Our goal is an administration that breaks down barriers, simplifies processes, and consistently implements digital solutions wherever they make life easier for people and the economy.”

Internal administrative coordination of the project is the responsibility of the City of Aachen’s Digitalization Office. As the core operational unit, the Business Registration Office within the Department of Public Safety and Order reviews and records the data generated through the process and ensures it is properly registered in the city’s business registry. The Department of Digital Administration and IT Management, together with the city’s IT service provider regio iT, is responsible for connecting the system to citywide specialized procedures and for its future integration into the business portal planned in collaboration with the Department of Economy, Science, Digital City, and Europe. The Economic Development Office also facilitates the connection to the regional startup and innovation ecosystem and supports the transition into existing advisory and networking structures.

The pilot program is being conducted in collaboration with the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and State Modernization (BMDS), the Federal Digital Service, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection, and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and other federal ministries. The goal remains to enable business start-ups within 24 hours in the future and to have the process run automatically in appropriate standard cases. This requires modernizing the underlying processes: registry queries, tax registration, notifications to social security agencies and professional associations, as well as standardizable reviews by licensing authorities.

Aachen offers the ideal conditions for this: The city is one of the most dynamic startup hubs in Germany. With 1,731 new startups in 2025 and ranking fourth nationwide in terms of startups per 100,000 residents, Aachen is particularly known for technology- and knowledge-based startups. This development is the result of an innovation ecosystem that has grown over the years—one that is competent and well-connected, in which key players from academia, business, and startup support work closely together in a spirit of trust, thereby creating reliable structures for founders.

What the Combined Application Can
Do The Combined Application is based on the KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau) Startup Platform. In collaboration with the ten pilot locations, the application process was adapted to meet administrative requirements and further simplified for entrepreneurs. The assisted data entry is designed to improve the quality of applications and thereby reduce time-consuming follow-up inquiries from government agencies to entrepreneurs. The KfW startup platform has been in use since 2018 and was initiated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and KfW to provide digital support to entrepreneurs with information and tools related to the startup process.

In parallel with the development of the combined application, the Federal Digital Service, in close collaboration with the states, municipalities, and specialized agencies, has gained important insights into user guidance, data requirements, and process options related to digital business start-ups. These insights are being incorporated into the further development of the service.

More information about the “Schneller Gründen” project can be found on the website of the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and State Modernization.