i'm not sure if this is the right place to ask the question, but...is there such a thing as a po box/mail forwarding place in germany that would rent a box to a non-resident/non-german citizen? i'm thinking surely berlin or another big city would have such a thing, i know we do in the states, but maybe not...

we're working on a project where we need a european 'agent,' and were hoping we might be able to just get a po box which would forward any correspondence to us in the u.s. anyone know of such a place?

(i'm moderately fluent in german, so i can make the calls, etc., but i just don't know if such a thing even exists there, and if we can get one.)

danke sehr!

They do indeed exist - that have an overview (in English) and info sheets (in German) here.

I don't know if that helps (have not read it all!). I know in the UK for example you already need to have a UK address to open one and they like them checked pretty regularly or they'll close them!

To get a PO Box with Deutsche Post you have to have a street address in Germany, and they expect you to empty your mailbox at least once every seven days - so this would not be suitable for someone who doesn't live in Germany.

There are various private companies that provide mail forwarding services - try a Google search on "Mail forwarding service" +Germany (I just did)

A word of caution... I don't know what sort of project this is, but we discovered that just having a postal address in Germany won't necessarily work. We tried to get a German VOIP number using a relative's address and our application got rejected because we were not listed at that address in the population register. You may well find that "agent" means "real person" as opposed to "accommodation address".

You would need a residential adress in germany. There is no "free roam" of people in this country. Every citizen needs to be registred, so anyone can check where you actually are or supposed to be. Heavy fine for non-compliance.
Alles Kontrolle here...

At least far more relaxed than in Switzerland.

It is only a problem with Deutsche Post AG as the German member of the UPU According to their TOS you need to have a valid adress in Germany to obtain a mailbox with them (and this has nothing to do with Germany but with regulations of the UPU).

There are several private companies that offer street adresses or mailbox adresses in Germany.

I believe that this has something to do with international regulations. I tried to get a UK number in my process of relocation to the UK and they refused to make it work before I had a street adress there. On the other hand: Nobody could avoid that a friend of mine in the UK signed for the contract and I used the number.

Germany is definitely stricter than other countries. We have VOIP numbers elsewhere which we set up using our names c/o a friend's address - no problem. In Germany you actually have to be registered as living at the address that you give them - and it seems they do check.