Hi, all searching for former friends and relatives in Germany.

Presently helping some German-born US adoptees to find their birth families I realized how relatively easy it is to find somebody here in Germany:

1. If you know the name of the person and his/her last known address or at least a place where your friend/relative once lived you would have to write to the local residents' registration office (Einwohnermeldeamt), tell them the name and last known address and ask where the person moved to. Then you write to that residents' registration office and ask the same questions, and so on until you have found the missing person.They usually charge 7-10 Euros for each new address.

2. The first step, however, may be to look at our online telephone books:

a) http://www.dastelefonbuch.de/
enter the name on the left and the name of the town or city on the right.

If you know a prename or a street you may use this link:
http://www.dastelefonbuch.de/Erweiterte-Suche.html

b) http://www.dasoertliche.de/
Click "erweiterte Suche" (second on the left" and you have an oppotunity to add a prename or the name of a street.
If you click the little square symbol below "Finden" you will be given people's addresses up to 50 m (ca. 32 miles) from the place you want to look at.

3. There are some more options such as parishes, schools, "Heimatverein" (local history and culture club), local archives, etc.

And of course you can use one of the search machines like Google, Yahoo etc.

To cut a long story short: it is much easier to find a long lost person in Germany in spite of our strict protection acts as you may assume.

Feel free to ask for suggestions in your particular case. Some experts here and on the general board for Germany will be happy to help you get your search started.

Gaby