certification
noun · öffentliche Beglaubigung
In the law of form, certification of a signature is the öffentliche Beglaubigung of § 129 BGB: the declaration is put in writing and the signature is certified by a Notar. It attests only the authenticity of the signature, never the content, it sits one tier below notarial recording, and it is the entry ticket of the register practice, § 29 GBO. The German word Zertifizierung means something else entirely.
Which translation, when
Why
Certification, where a legal text means the formal act on a signature, is the öffentliche Beglaubigung, and the entry has to hold three lines at once. First the definition: § 129 BGB requires, where statute prescribes the form, that the declaration be drawn up in writing and the signature of the declarant be certified by a Notar, with an electronic route beside it since the recent reform, in which a qualified electronic signature is certified by the Notar. The certificate speaks to the authenticity of the signature and to nothing else; content, legality and effectiveness of the declaration are outside it. Second the hierarchy: the öffentliche Beglaubigung is the lower of the two notarial form tiers. Notarial recording, the Beurkundung, replaces it, § 129 BGB, but the substitution runs only downhill; where the statute demands recording, a certified signature does not satisfy the form, and the sanction is nullity under § 125 BGB. That recording tier, and the trap between the tiers, is held by the entry on notarisation, so this entry keeps to the certification side. Third the habitat: the land register acts only on facts proven by public or publicly certified documents, § 29 GBO, and the public registers run on certified signatures, so the öffentliche Beglaubigung is the everyday currency of Grundbuch and register applications. The translation trap is the calque: in German, Zertifizierung belongs to conformity assessment, ISO audits, products and management systems, and a bare Bescheinigung is an everyday attestation without statutory form. A certification of a signature rendered as Zertifizierung der Unterschrift moves a formal act of the law of form into the world of quality management. So the safe rendering is öffentliche Beglaubigung for the formal tier, Beglaubigung in context, and Zertifizierung never.
Typical mistakes
- The öffentliche Beglaubigung attests only the authenticity of the signature, § 129 BGB, never content or effectiveness, so reading it as a substantive check overstates the act.
- Recording replaces certification, never the reverse, so where the statute demands Beurkundung a certified signature fails the form, § 125 BGB.
- Zertifizierung is conformity assessment and Bescheinigung an everyday attestation, so both misrender the statutory form of § 129 BGB.
What matters
Rendering a form requirement on signatures, the translation should use öffentliche Beglaubigung for the statutory tier of § 129 BGB, keep it below the recording tier held by Beurkundung, and avoid Zertifizierung, which in German belongs to conformity assessment rather than to the law of form.
What the machine misses
Automatic translation turns certification into Zertifizierung, the conformity-assessment word, or flattens it to Bescheinigung, an everyday attestation. Both miss the statutory form of § 129 BGB, the öffentliche Beglaubigung of a signature by a Notar, its limit to authenticity and its place one tier below notarial recording. The rendering moves a formal act of the law of form into the world of ISO audits or of plain paperwork.
Examples
| certification of the signature | Beglaubigung der Unterschrift |
| the declaration requires public certification | die Erklärung bedarf der öffentlichen Beglaubigung |
| publicly certified documents | öffentlich beglaubigte Urkunden |
| certification by a notary | Beglaubigung durch einen Notar |
More notes on these sections
notarisation notarielle Beurkundung