SBGG
On November 1st, 2024, the long-awaited law on self-determination with regard to gender entry (SBGG) finally came into force. However, changing your name and gender entry at the registry office in accordance with the SBGG is only the first step for you; you will then have to go through many institutions and companies to have your entries corrected everywhere.
On this page you will find information on how to reach your goal as quickly as possible at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
The information on this page is based on the experiences of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and the Institute of Physics, but hopefully it can be transferred to other faculties and institutes. The page will be updated whenever new information becomes available. Unfortunately, especially in the initial period after the law comes into force, it may happen that the responsible contact persons are not prepared for the SBGG procedure.
Personal data (students)
According to current information, changes will continue to be made according to the procedure described here.
The change of name or gender entry can be communicated via the contact form (German only), whereby you select the entry “Änderung Vorname, Nachname, Nationalität” as the “Thema Ihrer Anfrage”. A digital copy of the name certificate or the new birth certificate or identity card can be attached here as proof.
Personnel entries (employees/student employees)
To change personnel entries, the certificate confirming the name must be sent to the responsible HR administrator with a request to amend the data. The responsible HR administrator should be found on the Employee Self-Service page in the My Personal Data section under the Datenänderungshinweis tab.
In our experience, however, the corresponding entries in the personnel database are not always kept up to date, so if you do not receive a response, we recommend contacting your group's secretariat and asking about the currently assigned administrator in Department III.
Some HU Berlin digital services also obtain their information from the entries in your HU account. You can check the information there via the HU account info and request changes simply by sending an email from your HU account address to the CMS user help desk. Since the information in your user account is only data for internal communication, the CMS user help desk is usually much less complicated than the HR department when it comes to name changes and, in our experience, does not require any proof.
Certificates and other performance records
Humboldt-Universität charges a fee of €12.50 per page for the reissue of certificates and transcripts. Diploma supplements with an overview of achievements cost €61.36. Additional copies in English are free of charge.
Academic Transcript and Certificate (Bachelor/Master)
Your claim for the reissue of certificates according to §10 SBGG is generally directed against the offices that issued the original documents or that are authorized to issue duplicates. At Humboldt-Universität, these are the examination offices of the respective faculties responsible for your degree program.
You should first find out which faculty and which examination office is currently responsible for your former degree program. You should be able to find information about the institute responsible for your degree program on the HU's course offerings pages and information about the responsible examination office on the faculty pages.
We recommend that you explicitly refer to §10 SBGG when requesting a new certificate, attach the civil status certificate (Bescheinigung über die Namensführung) and ask for the new certificate to be issued with the date of the first certificate in accordance with the recommendation of the German Rectors' Conference. According to current experience, you may be asked for the court order instead and have to explain that only the civil certificate is required according to SBGG. There is a very high probability that the examination office will need your enrollment number to process your request. The newly issued transcripts and certificates will always contain the note “Duplicate”.
For the reissue of certificates, the old originals must be returned to the issuing office in advance.
Fees: Academic Transcript €25.00; Certificate €12.50; Diploma Supplement (incl. transcript of records) €61.36
Doctoral certificate
The information on requesting the reissue of certificates also applies as far as possible to doctoral certificates.
The contact point for the reissue of doctoral certificates is the doctoral office of the faculty to which your doctoral subject is assigned.
Fees: €37.50 (€12.50 per page for 2 German and 1 English certificate)
The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences already has procedures for name changes in accordance with the SBGG and fewer declarations are required; for example, new doctoral certificates are signed by the President's Office and Dean's Office at the time of initial issue as standard. The newly issued certificates will always contain the note “duplicate”.
The originals of the doctoral certificate must be returned to the relevant doctoral office before the new certificate is issued.
Once the fees have been paid, the new doctoral certificate will be sent by post.