Every Impressum (the legal notice German-speaking countries require on business websites) lists name, address and email. A trades business needs more, and that is exactly what standard generators leave out: in Austria the trade licence, the Landesinnung and the trade authority, in Germany the Handwerkskammer and the Handwerksrolle. Pick your trade, country and legal form, and the generator puts the rest together.
What does a trades business have to put in its Impressum?
In Austria, § 5 E-Commerce-Gesetz (ECG) sets out what every business website must show: the name or registered company name, the full address of the premises, an email address plus a second quick way to get in touch, the Firmenbuch number and court for registered companies, and the UID number (VAT ID) if you have one. All ten trades the generator covers are regulated trades (reglementierte Gewerbe) under § 94 Gewerbeordnung. That adds your chamber membership, the trade authority and a reference to the Gewerbeordnung with a link. The disclosure under § 25 Mediengesetz adds the object of the business and its registered office.
In Germany, § 5 Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG) applies. You must give your name and address, for companies the legal form and the people authorised to represent it, an email address, the register entry with court and number, and your USt-IdNr. (VAT ID) if you have one. According to the Zentralverband des Deutschen Handwerks (ZDH), the Handwerkskammer, the entry in the Handwerksrolle, a master craftsman title and a reference to the Handwerksordnung are not mandatory for electrical, plumbing and heating, car repair, building and finishing trades. Many businesses list them anyway, because they show at a glance that a registered specialist firm is behind the website. The generator therefore offers them as a recommendation.
Austria: Innung, trade authority and master business
Once you hold a trade licence, you are automatically a member of the Wirtschaftskammer (chamber of commerce) of your federal state and of your trade's guild, the Innung, for example the Landesinnung Bau or the Landesinnung Tischler und Holzgestalter. The generator works out both from your trade and federal state and words them the way the WKO's sample Impressum texts do.
The trade authority is the Bezirkshauptmannschaft (district authority) or, in statutory cities such as Linz, Wels, Graz or Salzburg, the Magistrat. Which authority issued your licence is shown on your extract from the Gewerbeinformationssystem Austria (GISA).
You do not have to state a master craftsman title. Those who have one like to show it, though: in its samples, the WKO lists “Meisterbetrieb” as a professional title with Austria as the awarding state. Baumeister (master builder) is a separate, protected title.
Germany: Handwerksrolle or Verzeichnis
Licensed crafts in Annex A (Anlage A) of the Handwerksordnung, such as electrical technicians, plumbers and heating engineers, roofers or parquet layers, are entered in the Handwerksrolle (crafts register) of your Handwerkskammer. Floor layers belong to the craft-like trades in Annex B, section 2, and are listed in the Verzeichnis der Inhaber handwerksähnlicher Gewerbe (§ 19 HwO). In the generator you pick your chamber from a list of all 53 Handwerkskammern; your business number is on your Handwerkskarte.
If your business employs more than ten people (counted on 31 December of the previous year), the website also needs a statement under § 36 Verbraucherstreitbeilegungsgesetz on whether you take part in consumer arbitration. You can delete the link to the EU online dispute resolution platform that used to be standard: the platform was shut down in July 2025.
How to use the generator
Choose your trade and country at the top, then your legal form. The form only shows what that combination needs: the Firmenbuch from the e.U. upwards, managing directors only for a GmbH or UG, the trade authority only in Austria. The preview on the right grows with every entry. When you are done, copy the text into your website builder or send the HTML to whoever looks after your website.
The generator is also available in German, Turkish, Croatian, Polish and Russian. Your Impressum is written in the language of the page, and a switch changes it to the German version. Chambers, guilds, registers and laws keep their German names, because those are the only names under which they can be found.
Common mistakes in a tradesperson's Impressum
The company name differs from the register, for example “Elektro Muster” instead of “Elektro Muster GmbH”. There is only a PO box instead of the business address. In Austria the trade authority and the Innung are missing, in Germany the managing directors of a GmbH. And often the Impressum is only on the website, not on the business's Facebook, Instagram or Google page. Missing details can lead to warning letters (Abmahnungen) from competitors and, in Austria, to administrative fines.