As a German citizen, you are obliged to have an identity card from the age of 16 if you are registered as having your main place of residence in Germany and do not have a valid passport, passport or temporary passport.

You must report the loss of your identity card immediately to a citizens' office or the police. If you do not do this, you are committing an offense. Once you have reported the loss to a citizens' office, thepolicewillautomatically be informed of the loss.

You can apply for a new ID card at the same time as reporting the loss to the Citizens' Registration Office. If you have a valid passport, you do not need to apply for a new ID card.

If you first report the loss to the police, you must also visit an identity card office to apply for a new identity card.

If you report the loss (to the police or citizens' office), the online ID card function will also be automatically blocked. This ensures that any attempt to misuse the online ID function is detected immediately. After blocking, it is not possible to use the online ID function of your ID card.

You can also have the online ID card blocked yourself by telephone.

You can only have the signature function blocked by the provider of your signature certificate.