Wills file
The Testament index was a while in Germany the civil registry of the birthplace of there in the register of births registered person guided index. The task of the card index was to secure the legal or will-determined (voluntary) succession . From 2012, these files were replaced by the Central Register of Wills .
Status before the introduction of the Central Register of Wills
For this purpose, the registry offices received from the notaries , local courts or youth welfare offices A5- landscape index cards with the essential data (name, date of birth, file number , document roll number, sender, etc.) for the named person. The registrar assigned a consecutive number to the card and placed it in the will file. The number was recorded in the birth entry in the birth register. For Germans born in (today) abroad, the main file for wills was at the Schöneberg District Court in Berlin .
If a person dies, the registry office of the place of birth was informed by the registrar at the place of death after the entry in the death register . This entered the death of the notarized person in the birth register . If he found that the birth entry was provided with a will card number (TK), he removed the corresponding card (s) and informed the sender named there about the death of the person. The dispatch of the information is noted on the index card with the date and destination. The card remained in the registry office.
New regulation
With the introduction of the Central Register of Wills by the Federal Chamber of Notaries on January 1, 2012, the will files no longer existed in their previous form.
Existing custody messages in the more than 5,000 wills registers of the registry offices and the main file for wills at the Schöneberg District Court in Berlin were transferred into electronic form and sent to the wills register of the Federal Chamber of Notaries. This process was completed at the end of 2016.
The registry is checked in every death. This ensures that every registered document is taken into account in the probate process. The Federal Chamber of Notaries informs the depositary of the deed so that it can be brought to the probate court. In this way, inheritance proceedings can be carried out faster, more efficiently and more securely. The last will of the testator is asserted.
