I went through the process of registering an UG for the second time last year. So, this time I was better prepared for the process.

First, I got a lot of value out of this web site: https://www.firma.de/en/company-formation/registering-a-limi...

It explains the various steps that are needed and their inter dependencies. In short, you are expected to know and act on this stuff and not be caught by surprise by any of it. Failing to act means the process derails for a few weeks/months until you fix it. And fixing it is exclusively your problem. So, read up.

Getting angry at the process is pointless. It is what it is. There are no short cuts. But the flip side is that it's a very predictable process. This is Germany after all and unquestioningly following convoluted processes to the letter is what they excel in. Yes, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever but if you play along and it ends up being fine.

A few things to be aware of:

- There's a chicken egg problem where you need a paper with stamp to open a bank account, a bank account to prove that your company has enough means to pay it's bills, and that proof to go to notary so they can register your company. Typical German solution: wave some cash at the notary and they'll wink at you and take your word for it and register your company. Likewise you can actually open the bank account before you get the paperwork done.

- Then the real work starts of registering with the Gewerbeamt, the transparency register, and the tax office. They all need the company to be registered first of course.

- German banks are pretty bad. Use one of the online more modern outfits. I've had a Commerzbank (I used them the first time, big mistake) employee explain to me once that the paper I needed was archived on microfiche in some basement. This was after weeks of trying to get them to produce said paper work which I needed for my taxes. Classic "the dog ate my homework" situation. We showed up in person to basically ask WTF?! and then they grudgingly admitted they could actually send somebody down to the basement to sort it out. So, this time, I used an online company called Penta (since merged with another player) and the whole process was super smooth. Bank account ready for action after a simple online verification process. By far the fastest thing in the whole process. I actually had this ready before I even went to the notary. I still had to wave cash at them because that's the process. And then I sent them confirmation that I put that cash in the bank account. Which unblocked the registration.

- Speaking of money, this whole process has a lot of hidden cost. Make sure you capitalize your UG to pay for: IHK (chamber of commerce), the notary, the accountant, your company bank account and a few other things. A personal loan is the way to do it. Put 3K aside for this.

- The process is not quick. Even doing everything in the right order, it took me nearly to the deadline my bank set for getting the right paper work to them (in digital form). The tax number and the ihk paper with the stamped company registration. Both took many weeks for some reason. End to end, it took me nearly 4 months. Most of that is just waiting for bureaucrats to do whatever it is they do and push the right buttons.

- I tracked all the steps in an issue tracker. It starts out simple but every step generates more steps. Basically all I did was track the known but unsolved steps I knew I had to take. Fill in this form, get that paper with a stamp, contact this or that agency. About 20 steps.

As for language. It's a mix of German and English. Get some people to help you with the German stuff. No way around that.