History of DENIC eG

How it all began: The launch of .de in 1986

The history of .de began more than 30 years ago – on November 5, 1986 – with the entry of the country code .de in the IANA database. This marked the starting signal for the Internet in Germany. Initially, administration was handled in the USA by the network operator CSNET. In 1988, administration was transferred to the Informatikrechner-Betriebsgruppe (IRB) at the University of Dortmund, which took over the name server service and the allocation of IPv4 address blocks. The service provider was called the Network Information Center, or NIC for short. And since it took over the administration of .de, the name DENIC was born. Just six domains (dbp.de, rmi.de, telenet.de, uka.de, uni-dortmund.de, uni-paderborn.de) were registered at that time.

The domains were initially managed “on demand” using a manually maintained list, but this list grew faster and faster – so a professional basis was needed: In August 1993, on the initiative of the three German Internet service providers at the time (DFN, EUNET, and Xlink), the “Interessenverbund Deutsches Network Information Center (IV-DENIC)” was formed, which put the operation of the name server service out to tender nationwide. The computer center at the University of Karlsruhe wins the tender and takes over the administration of the .de domains for an initial period of three years starting in January 1994. At that time, there are approximately 1,000 such domains. By mid-1996, this number has increased to 20,000.

1996: The founding of the DENICeG

In December 1996, a meeting of 37 German Internet service providers decides to establish a cooperative to manage German domains and provide the necessary infrastructure. This marks the birth of DENIC eG. The DENIC office is set up in Frankfurt am Main in July 1997 and has been the heart of the cooperative ever since.