How to get your Germany pension statement

Versicherungsverlauf / Renteninformation

Known in English as the Insurance record / pension information statement. Look for this name on the site — it may not be translated.

• Your German social insurance number (Sozialversicherungsnummer / Rentenversicherungsnummer) — 12 characters, on payslips and on any DRV letter.
• A login: either a German ID card with the online eID function, or a registration letter (Zugangsschlüssel) that DRV posts to your address, including addresses abroad.
• Your German employers and the years, plus any periods of study, unemployment or child-raising — these can count and are often missing.

1. 1
   Open the DRV eService portal

   Deutsche Rentenversicherung administers the statutory pension. The English-language international section is the better entry point if you are outside Germany.

   Open this page ↗
2. 2
   Register for access

   The online eID route is instant but needs a German ID card and a reader or NFC phone. Otherwise request the postal registration letter — it goes to foreign addresses, so plan for a couple of weeks.

   Open this page ↗
3. 3
   Request your Versicherungsverlauf

   This is the document that matters: a line-by-line list of every insured month, its employer, and its type. The Renteninformation is the shorter annual summary with projected amounts, and DRV only sends it automatically once you have five years of contributions.
4. 4
   Run a Kontenklärung if anything is missing

   Kontenklärung is the formal account-clarification procedure for adding missing periods. It is worth doing long before you claim, while employers and universities can still confirm dates.
5. 5
   Save the record

   Keep the PDF. Under the US–Germany agreement a single application to either DRV or the SSA counts for both, so the German record is also useful evidence in a US claim.

You have no German ID card, so the eID route is closed

Request the postal access key instead — DRV sends it internationally. DRV also runs free advice centres and a telephone service that will send your insurance record by post on request.

You cannot find your insurance number

It is on every German payslip and on your social insurance card. DRV can trace it from your name, date and place of birth — the place of birth matters, because the number is derived partly from it.

Study, child-raising or unemployment years are missing

These are creditable but are frequently absent until you claim them. Kontenklärung is the mechanism; university enrolment certificates and children's birth certificates are the evidence.

The current delivery time for a postal registration letter to a non-EU address.

Upload the statement to your vault and we'll read the figures out of it — balances, benefits, vesting and retirement ages — and tell you what changed since your last one.