Official language

(1) The official language is German.
(2) Where applications are made to an authority, or submissions, vouchers, documents or other papers are presented, in a foreign language, the authority should demand without delay the presentation of a translation. In justified cases, the presentation of a certified translation, or one prepared by a publicly appointed or sworn interpreter or translator, may be demanded. Where the translation demanded is not presented without delay, the authority may itself procure a translation at the expense of the party. Where the authority has engaged interpreters or translators, they receive remuneration by correspondent application of the Judicial Remuneration and Compensation Act.
(3) Where a notice, an application or the making of a declaration of intent is to set a period running within which the authority must act in a particular manner, and these are received in a foreign language, the running of the period begins only at the point in time at which a translation is available to the authority.
(4) Where a notice, an application or a declaration of intent received in a foreign language is intended, for the benefit of a party, to preserve a period vis-à-vis the authority, to assert a public-law claim, or to seek a benefit, the notice, the application or the declaration of intent is deemed to have been made at the point in time of its receipt by the authority, where a translation is presented within a reasonable period set by the authority on demand. Otherwise the point in time of receipt of the translation is decisive, insofar as nothing else follows from intergovernmental agreements. This legal consequence must be pointed out when the period is set.