Bundesdruckerei

Bundesdruckerei is a German company specializing in secure documents, identity infrastructure, security printing, and related digital trust services. Its origins reach back to 1879, when it was established as the Reichsdruckerei, or Imperial Printing House. The organization operated under that name until 1945 and developed expertise in highly secure government and official printing. Historical accounts describe its ability to reproduce complex scripts and specialist materials, including Cyrillic, Georgian, Armenian, Arabic, Kurdish, Syriac, and Egyptian hieroglyphs. This breadth reflected the technical role of a major state printing institution rather than a conventional commercial publishing business. The company was renamed Bundesdruckerei in 1951. Under the new name, it continued to support public administration through the production of official documents and security-sensitive printed materials. Its work has included passports, identity cards, visas, vehicle documents, stamps, banknotes, tobacco tax stamps, and other documents requiring protection against counterfeiting or unauthorized alteration. The company also produces high-security cards and equipment used to inspect or authenticate documents. A major strategic change occurred after privatization in 1994. Bundesdruckerei expanded beyond traditional security printing into digital security and secure-identification services. This broadened its role from producing physical documents to supplying integrated systems for issuing, managing, checking, and using official identities. Its portfolio came to include complete passport and identity-card systems, document readers and checking devices, security software, and trust-center services. These activities connect physical credentials with electronic authentication, certificates, and other elements of digital trust infrastructure. The company returned to state ownership in 2009. That status is consistent with its role in national identity, public administration, and critical security infrastructure, where continuity, confidentiality, and governmental control can be strategically important. Bundesdruckerei’s capabilities span document design and production, personalization, identity verification, credential inspection, and digital trust services. The company therefore occupies a specialized position between a traditional government printer, a technology supplier, and a provider of national digital-identity infrastructure. Bundesdruckerei has also participated in international identity standards and infrastructure. In 2015, it won the tender to provide the International Civil Aviation Organization Public Key Directory, a system used in the global public-key infrastructure for electronic machine-readable travel documents. This assignment illustrates the company’s role beyond domestic document production and its connection to international travel-document authentication. The business remains headquartered in Berlin, in the Kreuzberg district. Its principal customer environment is German public administration, although its technologies and services can support international identity, travel-document, security-printing, and trust-service requirements. Publicly available reference material does not establish a single consumer-facing product brand or a public stock listing. Bundesdruckerei is best understood as an institutional infrastructure brand whose value lies in secure production, identity assurance, document validation, and trusted digital transactions.

Bundesdruckerei’s institutional history begins in 1879 with the creation of the Reichsdruckerei, the German Imperial Printing House. It was established to handle official and security-sensitive printing at a national level. During its early history, the organization developed capabilities extending well beyond ordinary text printing. Contemporary accounts cited in historical references praised the quality of its work and noted its ability to reproduce Egyptian hieroglyphs for museums. It also printed material using numerous writing systems, including Cyrillic, Georgian, Armenian, Arabic, Kurdish, and Syriac. These capabilities demonstrate the technical and cultural breadth expected of a major state printing institution. The name Reichsdruckerei remained in use until 1945. In 1951, the organization was renamed Bundesdruckerei. The new name reflected the postwar Federal Republic and its role as a federal supplier of official documents and printed security materials. Over subsequent decades, the company produced or supported a wide range of government-related items, including passports, identity cards, visas, vehicle documents, stamps, banknotes, tobacco revenue stamps, and other official publications. Security features, controlled production, and resistance to forgery were central to this work. A decisive organizational and commercial transition came in 1994, when Bundesdruckerei was privatized. Following privatization, it expanded its business into digital security and secure-identification services. Rather than limiting itself to printing credentials, the company increasingly offered complete systems for producing, issuing, managing, and checking identity documents. This wider portfolio included high-security cards, document inspection equipment, security software, and trust-center services. The transition reflected the increasing convergence of physical identity documents, electronic certificates, automated inspection, and digital authentication. Bundesdruckerei returned to state ownership in 2009. The change restored a direct public-sector ownership model for a company involved in identity documents and other sensitive national infrastructure. Its state-oriented role has continued alongside its technology activities, leaving it positioned as both a security printer and a supplier of digital identity and trust technologies. In 2014, the company was involved in a procurement dispute that reached the European Court of Justice. The case concerned a Dortmund document-digitalization contract and whether the contracting authority could require bidders to ensure German minimum-wage conditions for work that would be subcontracted to a Polish firm. The court’s preliminary ruling addressed the limits of applying such a requirement to a subcontractor operating outside the relevant German legal scope. In 2015, Bundesdruckerei won a tender to provide the International Civil Aviation Organization Public Key Directory. The directory forms part of the international public-key infrastructure used to authenticate electronic machine-readable travel documents. This award illustrated the company’s move into international digital trust infrastructure and its ability to operate at the intersection of secure documents, cryptography, and cross-border identity verification. Today, Bundesdruckerei is based in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. Its activities cover secure printing, identity documents, credential systems, document-checking equipment, security software, and trust-center services. Its historical evolution runs from a national official printer to a broader provider of integrated physical and digital identity infrastructure.

1. 2015ICAO Public Key Directory tender

   Bundesdruckerei wins the tender to provide the ICAO Public Key Directory for electronic travel-document authentication.

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2. 2014European Court of Justice procurement ruling

   A preliminary ruling addresses the application of German minimum-wage requirements to subcontracted work for a document-digitalization contract.

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3. 2009Return to state ownership

   The company becomes state-owned again.

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4. 1994Privatization

   Bundesdruckerei is privatized and subsequently broadens its activities into digital security and secure identification.

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5. 1951Renamed Bundesdruckerei

   The company adopts the Bundesdruckerei name and continues as a federal security-printing institution.

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6. 1945Reichsdruckerei name ends

   The institution ceases operating under the Reichsdruckerei name.

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7. 1879Reichsdruckerei is established

   The organization that later became Bundesdruckerei is founded as the Reichsdruckerei, Germany’s Imperial Printing House.

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A government-oriented security-printing and digital-identity provider combining physical credential production with document verification, electronic authentication, and trust services.

• Passports and electronic travel documentsSecure identity documents

  Bundesdruckerei produces secure travel-document systems, including passports and related electronic infrastructure. These systems combine controlled document production with security features and cryptographic mechanisms that allow authorized parties to inspect and authenticate electronic travel documents.

• Identity cardsSecure identity documents

  The company supplies identity-document systems for public administration. Its role can cover the secure production of cards as well as associated issuance, personalization, verification, and digital-security components.

• High-security cardsSecurity printing

  High-security cards are designed for applications where identity, access, or entitlement must be protected against counterfeiting and unauthorized alteration. Bundesdruckerei’s offering forms part of its broader combination of secure materials, personalization, inspection, and authentication technologies.

• Document checking devicesIdentity verification technology

  Bundesdruckerei offers equipment used to examine and validate official documents. Such devices support frontline document inspection by checking physical and electronic security characteristics and helping organizations identify potentially invalid or manipulated credentials.

• Trust-center servicesDigital trust services

  Trust-center services provide digital-security infrastructure for certificates, electronic authentication, and trusted transactions. They extend the company’s traditional document-security role into the management of digital identities and cryptographic trust relationships.

• Official security printingSecurity printing

  The company’s traditional printing portfolio has included banknotes, stamps, visas, vehicle documents, tobacco revenue stamps, and electronic publications. These materials require controlled production and anti-counterfeiting expertise rather than ordinary commercial printing.

• 2015ICAO Public Key Directory contractOther

  International electronic travel documents require a trusted mechanism for distributing and validating the public keys used in document authentication.

  What changed. Bundesdruckerei won the tender to provide the International Civil Aviation Organization Public Key Directory.

  Aftermath. The contract strengthened the company’s international role in travel-document authentication and digital trust infrastructure.

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• 2009Return to state ownershipStrategy

  Bundesdruckerei’s work in identity documents and security infrastructure has direct public-sector significance.

  What changed. The company returned to state ownership.

  Aftermath. It continued operating as a state-owned enterprise while maintaining its expanded portfolio of secure printing and digital identity services.

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• 1994Expansion following privatizationStrategy

  After privatization, Bundesdruckerei operated in a changing security market in which identity documents were increasingly linked to electronic systems and digital authentication.

  What changed. The company expanded from traditional security printing into digital security, secure identification, document-checking technology, security software, and trust-center services.

  Aftermath. Bundesdruckerei developed into an integrated physical and digital identity-services provider rather than remaining solely a government printer.

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• 2015Bundesdruckerei wins ICAO Public Key Directory tender

  Bundesdruckerei won the tender to provide the International Civil Aviation Organization Public Key Directory, supporting the international authentication infrastructure for electronic machine-readable travel documents.

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• 2014European Court of Justice ruling involving a Bundesdruckerei tender

  In a case involving a document-digitalization contract for the City of Dortmund, Bundesdruckerei obtained a preliminary ruling that a contracting authority could not require bidders to guarantee German minimum-wage levels for work intended to be subcontracted to a Polish company outside the scope of German minimum-wage law.

  LawsuitRegulation
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1. Bundesdruckerei