Hamburg – November 04, 2026 -- Residents anywhere in Germany will soon be able to register or change their address online at wohnsitzanmeldung.gov.de, without a trip to the registration office. The Federal Cabinet has adopted the IT Components Ordinance (IT-Komponentenverordnung), which requires all registration authorities to offer the electronic address registration service developed in Hamburg.
The service already reaches 74.2 million people
The electronic address registration (eWA) is already connected to more than 3,800 registration authorities and is available to 74.2 million people. It handles both new registrations and changes of address digitally. Hamburg's Senate Chancellery developed it together with what was then the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, following the "one for all" principle, under which one authority builds a service that others reuse.
It is the first service to be mandated nationwide
The eWA is the first online service whose use the IT Components Ordinance makes binding across Germany. The legal basis is Section 4(1), sentence 1 of the Online Access Act (OZG).
The federal government takes responsibility for ensuring that the service meets the required legal standards. State and local authorities therefore do not have to carry out those checks themselves, which makes it easier for them to adopt the service.
More services could follow
Further online services can be made mandatory nationwide by amending the ordinance. They must meet quality criteria, including a high degree of digitalisation, accessibility and secured funding.
Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger said the ordinance ends the patchwork of local solutions, so people in cities and in rural areas alike can register their address online without leaving home. Jan Pörksen, head of Hamburg's Senate Chancellery and chair of the Digital Ministers' Conference, said a solution developed in Hamburg is becoming the binding standard for the whole country.