Data Sources
The data basis for OpenPLZ API is completely based on public sources of the countries as well as on data of the OpenStreetMap project. The sources are listed in detail below.
Germany
Municipality directory
The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) provides the Gemeindeleitdatei GV100 for download. This file contains information on all regional units of Germany (federal states, administrative districts, counties, associations of municipalities and municipalities). The GV100 file is a text file with a fixed record structure of 220 digits that is updated regularly.
Source:
Street directory
In Germany, there is no freely accessible database to obtain all postcodes and/or street names in Germany. There are commercial services that offer such data, but they cost money and may not become Open Data.
An alternative is the community-run OpenStreetMap project. Every week, a new and complete copy of all data in OpenStreetMap is made available both as a compressed XML file and in PBF format (Protocolbuffer Binary Format). All info on this can be found at Planet OSM. The database file is very large, so OpenPLZ API works with a regional extract for Germany. The streets are extracted with all relevant information from the OpenStreetMap data and linked with the data from the GV-ISys. The result is a CSV file that has been given its place in the following GitHub repo and is updated regularly.
Source:
Austria
Municipality directory
The Bundesanstalt Statistik Österreich (STATISTIK AUSTRIA) provides downloads for regional breakdown.
Sources:
Street directory
The Bundesanstalt Statistik Österreich (STATISTIK AUSTRIA) also provides the complete street directory, updated weekly.
Source:
Switzerland
Municipal directory
The Federal Statistical Office provides APIs and downloads for regional breakdown.
Source:
Street directory
The Federal Office of Topography provides the complete, regularly updated street directory.
Source:
Liechtenstein
Municipal directory
The list of municipalities is based on the Liechtenstein Municipalities Act of 20 March 1996.
Sources:
Street directory
The Swiss Federal Office of Topography also provides the complete, regularly updated street directory for Liechtenstein.
Source: