Pursuant to Section 7 (1) of the Crafts Code, a natural person, legal entity or partnership is entered in the Register of Crafts and Skilled Trades as the owner of a business that is subject to registration if the manager of the business meets the requirements for entry in the Register of Crafts and Skilled Trades and Skilled Trades with the craft to be practiced or a related craft.

This includes that the craft business manager is permanently employed, holds the title of master craftsman for the craft to be practiced or provides evidence of a corresponding qualification and, according to his contractual position in the company, is in a position to manage the business responsibly in terms of the craft. This presupposes constant familiarity with the operations of the business, which can only be maintained through constant liaison with the business and through direct contact in terms of time and space. This means that the plant manager must be able to instruct the persons working in the company during normal working hours and actually fulfill the supervisory duties and management powers incumbent upon him. He must monitor the progress and execution of the work on all working days during regular working hours and intervene in a guiding and corrective manner as often as is necessary. In doing so, he cannot limit himself to a mere control of the work result. (BVerwG, GewArch. 1994, 172)

According to established case law, a plant manager must, on the basis of the legal position granted to him by contract, be legally and factually capable of comprehensive technical management in a manner comparable to the independent master craftsman in an individual craft business, and must hold the sole dominant position in the craft sense. (BVerwG, judgment of 16.04.1991-1 C 50/88, OVG Rhineland-Palatinate, judgment of 05.01.1993).