I think you misunderstood that last quote: - exposing my home address could put me in personal danger so I have a stronger interest to keep that private BUT

I think you misunderstood that last quote: - exposing my home address could put me in personal danger so I have a stronger interest to keep that private BUT - as long as my ownership of different companies can be correlated These are conflicting interests (my interest in privacy, the public's interest in transparency) that need to be weighed and Germany traditionally favors privacy in most cases. The Transparenzregister requires registration and only permits limited access to members of the general public. But it exists and the information is out there. That is important. It's really hard to convey the notion of European (and especially German) ideas of privacy to Americans given that even California's privacy laws are fundamentally different. I suppose it's similar to trying to explain US gun laws or freedom of speech to Europeans. There may be superficial similarities in what these legally mean in practice but the underlying cultural ideas and origins are very different (e.g. the material fact that there are more guns in the US than gun owners has very important ramifications: even with public support, implementing Australia-style gun collection would take decades if not longer).