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🇩🇪 Germany · Deutsche Rentenversicherung

How to get your German Versicherungsverlauf

Short answer

Go to the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Online-Dienste at eservice-drv.de, register and log in with your German ID card's Online-Ausweis function (plus the AusweisApp), an ELSTER certificate, or BundID, and open your Versicherungsverlauf.

It is free. The Versicherungsverlauf is the full chronological record of your insurance periods (which is what counts toward the 5-year minimum) and the Entgeltpunkte stored against them (which is what the pension is calculated from) — both on one document, so unlike some countries you do not need two separate statements. If you live abroad and hold no German ID card, the online portal is effectively closed to you; request the record by post instead, with an informal written request or the V0100 'Antrag auf Kontenklärung', to Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund, 10704 Berlin.

Time
About 10 minutes online; a few weeks if you request it by post
Cost
Free
You need
Your Versicherungsnummer (SV-Nummer), if you know it · A German ID card with the online function OR an ELSTER certificate — or, from abroad, just a postal address

Below: all 3 steps, and what to do at each point where the login goes wrong — which is the part the official pages leave out.

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Before you start

Before you start: can you log in, or will you request it by post?

The Deutsche Rentenversicherung's online portal is real and good, but it is gated behind a strong German identity check. Which of three routes you take is the single decision that shapes everything after it, so make it now rather than halfway through a login you cannot finish.

The three routes are: (1) the online function of a German ID card (Personalausweis or eAT residence permit) with the AusweisApp on your phone; (2) an ELSTER certificate, the same file used for German tax filing; or (3) BundID, the federal login that sits on top of the first two. Any of them opens the full portal.

If you live abroad and hold none of these — no German ID card with an activated online function, no German tax certificate — the honest answer is that the online portal is closed to you, and no amount of trying will open it. That is not a dead end: anyone can request their Versicherungsverlauf by post and receive it by mail. Skip the portal entirely and take the by-post route below.

If it doesn't look like this

What exactly is a Versicherungsverlauf, and how is it different from a Renteninformation?

The Versicherungsverlauf is the underlying record: every insurance period you have, listed chronologically with dates, and the Entgeltpunkte credited to each. The Renteninformation is the one-page forecast letter the Deutsche Rentenversicherung posts you once a year automatically — from age 27, once you have at least five years (60 months) of contributions — projecting your future pension. The Rentenauskunft is the fuller version of that letter, sent from age 55. For checking that your record is complete and correct, you want the Versicherungsverlauf, because it is the only one that shows the period-by-period detail. Your first-ever Renteninformation actually arrives with a Versicherungsverlauf attached.

What is my Versicherungsnummer and where do I find it?

Your Versicherungsnummer (also called the SV-Nummer or Rentenversicherungsnummer) is the identifier your whole German pension record hangs from. It is on your SV-Ausweis (social insurance card), on any German payslip, and on correspondence from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung. You do not strictly need it to log in with an eID, but you do need it — or enough personal detail for them to find it — for a postal request.

How will you get your record?

Pick the route that matches what you actually have. The two online routes rejoin at the same place; the postal route runs separately and is the right one for most people living outside Germany.

1a few minutes

Log in with your ID card's online function (Online-Ausweis)

Open the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Online-Dienste at eservice-drv.de, choose Registrieren / Anmelden, and pick the Online-Ausweis method. Hold your German ID card to the back of your phone, enter your six-digit card PIN in the AusweisApp when prompted, and you are in.

This is the strongest and most direct route: the ID card's chip proves who you are, so the portal opens your full account immediately, with nothing to activate by post.

If it doesn't look like this

The AusweisApp won't read my card, or my phone has no NFC

The online function needs an NFC reader — most modern phones have one, but some do not, and a laptop generally needs a separate card reader. Check that NFC is switched on in your phone settings and that you are holding the card still against the exact spot the phone reads NFC (often the upper back). If your phone can't do it at all, you can use a USB card reader on a computer with the desktop AusweisApp.

I never set a PIN, or I've forgotten the one I set

Many people were issued a five-digit transport PIN with the card and never changed it to a personal six-digit one, which the online function requires. If you still have the PIN letter (PIN-Brief) that came with the card, use the transport PIN to set a new one in the AusweisApp. If the letter is gone or the PIN is blocked after wrong attempts, only the issuing authority (Bürgeramt / the German mission that issued the card) can reset it — which is impractical from abroad, so fall back to the by-post route.

1a few minutes

Log in with an ELSTER certificate or BundID

Open eservice-drv.de, choose Registrieren / Anmelden, and pick either the ELSTER certificate or BundID. With ELSTER you upload the same certificate file (.pfx) you use for German tax returns and enter its password; with BundID you sign in to your federal login, which itself uses your eID or ELSTER underneath.

Either route reaches the same full account as the ID-card method. ELSTER is often the easier one for someone who has filed German tax but no longer holds a current German ID card.

If it doesn't look like this

I have no ELSTER certificate and can't create one from abroad

Creating an ELSTER certificate requires an activation ID by email and an activation code sent by post to your registered address, so it is awkward if you are outside Germany. If neither ELSTER nor an ID-card login is realistic, stop trying to force the portal and use the by-post route — it needs no online identity at all.

110 minutes to send; a few weeks to arrive

Request your Versicherungsverlauf by post

You do not need any online identity to get your record. Send a written request to the Deutsche Rentenversicherung and they mail the Versicherungsverlauf to you. You can write an informal (formlos) letter, or use the V0100 form, 'Antrag auf Kontenklärung', which asks for the same record and prompts them to fill any gaps at the same time.

Address it to Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund, 10704 Berlin, or to your regional Rentenversicherung office if you know it. Include your Versicherungsnummer if you have it; if you do not, give your full name, date and place of birth, and any old German employers and dates, which is enough for them to locate the account. State clearly that you want your Versicherungsverlauf.

If you are in the United States, the German missions there and the Deutsche Rentenversicherung's international liaison offices routinely handle exactly this, and there is a dedicated advisory service (Auslandsberatung) for people living abroad. It is slower than the portal — think a few weeks by international mail — but it is the route that actually works without a German ID card.

If it doesn't look like this

I don't know my Versicherungsnummer

It is not a blocker for a postal request. Give your name, date and place of birth, and any German employers with rough dates, and the Deutsche Rentenversicherung can find your account and, if needed, reissue the number. If you never held a German social insurance number at all — for instance a very short assignment — say so; they will tell you what, if anything, is on record.

2under a minute

Open your Versicherungsverlauf

Inside the portal, open your Versicherungsverlauf. It is the full chronological list of your insurance periods — each with its start and end dates and the type of period — together with the Entgeltpunkte (earnings points) credited to you. Download it and keep the file.

This one document is both halves of the picture, which is why Germany needs only one. The dated periods are what count toward the five-year minimum insurance period (the Wartezeit) and toward combining your record with other countries'. The Entgeltpunkte are what your pension is actually calculated from — one year at exactly average German earnings is worth one point, and each point is currently worth €42.52 a month.

Read down it before you leave. If a period you know you were insured for is missing, shows the wrong dates, or shows no points where you earned, this is where you first see it — and the next step is how you get it fixed.

The most recent year or so is often blank even though you paid in. Employers report earnings once a year and in arrears, so the last 12–18 months usually aren't on the record yet. That is a reporting lag, not a lost year.

If it doesn't look like this

What do the Entgeltpunkte on my record actually mean in euros?

Add up your Entgeltpunkte and multiply by the current pension value (aktueller Rentenwert), €42.52 per point per month from 1 July 2026, for a rough monthly pension at the standard retirement age. So 30 points ≈ €1,276 a month today; the German 'standard pensioner' with 45 years of average earnings has about 45 points, ≈ €1,913 a month. Retiring early reduces the figure (a lower Zugangsfaktor), retiring later raises it.

3varies — weeks if documents are needed

Check for gaps and run a Kontenklärung if you find any

A German pension account is very often incomplete, and the missing periods are exactly the ones that raise your pension. Compare the Versicherungsverlauf against your own history and, where something is missing, start a Kontenklärung (account clarification) — online in the same portal, or with the V0100 form — attaching the evidence.

The usual omissions: child-rearing periods (Kindererziehungszeiten), worth up to three years and roughly one point per year per child, and credited by default to one parent but only once claimed; school and university time (Anrechnungszeiten); periods of care; and old or foreign employers that were never reported. Until a Kontenklärung adds them, the record understates both your months and your points. The Deutsche Rentenversicherung usually prompts a clarification by around your mid-40s, but you can start it any time.

If it doesn't look like this

I had a Minijob — should it be on here?

It depends on whether you opted out. Since October 2022 a Minijob (marginal employment, up to €556 a month in 2025/26) is pension-insured by default, so it earns small Entgeltpunkte and, importantly, full qualifying months. But you could apply once, in writing, to be exempt (Befreiung von der Rentenversicherungspflicht) — and if you did, those months are not full contribution periods and earn no points. So an opted-out Minijob legitimately shows weak or absent coverage; an opted-in one should appear.

What happens next

Once you have the Versicherungsverlauf, checked and corrected, you hold the German half of your cross-border pension picture: the months that decide whether Germany pays at all, and the points that decide how much. Keep the file — it is a snapshot of a record that keeps growing, and the copy you save today is the evidence of what the Deutsche Rentenversicherung held on this date.

Germany pays its own pension on its own Entgeltpunkte, no matter where you end up living — the Deutsche Rentenversicherung pays worldwide. What crossing borders changes is eligibility, not the points: if your German coverage is under the five-year minimum, insurance periods from other EU/EEA countries, or from the United States under the German–US agreement, can be combined with it to get you over the line, and Germany then pays pro-rata on its own points.

You are not the courier for any of this. When you eventually claim, the pension institutions request each other's records directly — you tell them you worked abroad and they exchange the histories between themselves. What the Versicherungsverlauf is for is the step before that: confirming the German side is complete and correct now, while corrections are still easy, rather than discovering a gap mid-claim when it delays the pension.

If it doesn't look like this

I only worked in Germany for a couple of years and I'm not from the EU — is that money just gone?

Not necessarily. If you have fewer than 60 months of German contributions, are not in the EU/EEA (or a country with an agreement that would otherwise combine your periods), and are no longer compulsorily insured in Germany, you can apply to have your OWN contributions refunded (Beitragserstattung) after a 24-month waiting period, instead of drawing a tiny pension later. It refunds the employee share, not the employer's. For a short-stay US expat this is often the better outcome than leaving a sub-five-year record stranded — but weigh it against totalizing those months toward a US or EU claim first, because a refund closes that door.

Do my years in other countries count toward my German pension?

For getting over the five-year minimum, yes. Under EU Regulation 883/2004, insurance periods in any EU/EEA country (and Switzerland) are combined with your German periods so that a record too short to qualify on its own can still produce a pension, with each country paying for its own periods. The German–US totalization agreement, in force since 1979, does the same bilaterally with US Social Security coverage. Germany generally needs at least twelve months of its own contributions before foreign periods can be borrowed onto it. Combining only ever moves the eligibility bar — it never transfers points from one country to another.

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Questions people actually ask

How do I get my Versicherungsverlauf from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung?

Online, log in to the Deutsche Rentenversicherung's Online-Dienste at eservice-drv.de with your German ID card's online function (plus the AusweisApp), an ELSTER certificate, or BundID, and open your Versicherungsverlauf — it is free and available immediately. If you live abroad and have no German eID, request it by post instead: an informal letter or the V0100 'Antrag auf Kontenklärung' to Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund, 10704 Berlin, and it arrives by mail in a few weeks.

Is the Versicherungsverlauf free?

Yes. Requesting your Versicherungsverlauf, online or by post, is free, and you can request it as often as you like.

Can I get my German pension record from abroad without a German ID card?

Yes, but not through the online portal, which needs a German ID card's online function or an ELSTER certificate — both effectively out of reach if you no longer live in Germany. The route that works from anywhere is postal: write to the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund (10704 Berlin), or use the V0100 form, with your Versicherungsnummer or enough personal and employment detail to find your account, and they mail you the record. In the United States, the German missions and the DRV's international offices handle these requests.

What is the difference between a Versicherungsverlauf, a Renteninformation and a Rentenauskunft?

The Versicherungsverlauf is the detailed record: every insurance period with dates and the Entgeltpunkte behind them. The Renteninformation is the short annual forecast letter, posted automatically from age 27 once you have five years of contributions, projecting your future pension. The Rentenauskunft is the more detailed forecast, sent from age 55 and including the full Versicherungsverlauf. To check your record is complete, you want the Versicherungsverlauf.

What are Entgeltpunkte and what is one worth?

Entgeltpunkte (earnings points) are what a German pension is built from. Each year you earn points equal to your gross earnings divided by the national average earnings, so exactly-average earnings for a full year is one point, and earnings above the contribution ceiling (Beitragsbemessungsgrenze) earn no more — capping a year at roughly 1.95 points in 2026. Your monthly pension is your total points times the current pension value (aktueller Rentenwert), €42.52 from 1 July 2026, at the standard retirement age.

How many years do I need for a German pension?

Five years — 60 calendar months of insurance — is the minimum (the Wartezeit) for the regular old-age pension. That minimum is counted in months of coverage, not in earnings, so a low-earning month still counts as a full qualifying month. If your German coverage is under five years, periods from other EU/EEA countries or, under the 1979 agreement, from US Social Security can be combined with it to reach the minimum, and Germany then pays pro-rata on its own points.

Why is the most recent year missing from my Versicherungsverlauf?

Because German employers report earnings once a year and in arrears, so the last 12–18 months of current employment are usually not on the record yet even though contributions were paid. Recent months can appear blank or 'noch nicht abschließend gespeichert'. It is a reporting lag, not a lost year, and it fills in later.

My record is missing periods I know I'm owed — how do I fix it?

Start a Kontenklärung (account clarification), online in the portal or with the V0100 form, attaching evidence. Commonly missing: child-rearing periods (Kindererziehungszeiten, up to three years and about a point a year per child, credited to one parent only once claimed), school and university time, care periods, and old or unreported employers. Until they are added, the record understates both your months and your points, so it is worth doing well before you claim.

Does a Minijob count toward my German pension?

By default yes — since October 2022 a Minijob (up to €556 a month in 2025/26) is pension-insured, earning small Entgeltpunkte and full qualifying months. But you could apply, once and in writing, to be exempt (Befreiung von der Rentenversicherungspflicht); if you did, those months earn no points and are not full contribution periods. So whether a Minijob appears on your record depends on whether you opted out.

I only worked in Germany briefly and I'm not an EU citizen — can I get my contributions back?

Possibly. With fewer than 60 months of German contributions, if you are outside the EU/EEA (and any country whose agreement would combine your periods) and no longer compulsorily insured in Germany, you can apply for a refund of your own contributions (Beitragserstattung) after a 24-month wait, instead of a small future pension. It refunds the employee share only, and taking it closes the option of totalizing those months toward a US or EU claim — so compare the two before deciding.

Do I have to send my Versicherungsverlauf to another country's pension office?

No. For state pensions the institutions request records from each other directly — when you claim, you declare that you worked abroad and they exchange the histories between themselves. There is no claimant-carried document for pensions. Your Versicherungsverlauf is for you: it is how you confirm the German side is complete and correct before you claim, which matters because corrections are slow and a gap found mid-claim delays the pension.

Official sources

Last checked against the live portal on . Government portals get redesigned without notice — if a screen here no longer matches what you see, trust the portal, not us. This guide is independent and is not affiliated with the Deutsche Rentenversicherung.