hinterlegen

Hinterlegen is a German verb meaning “to place”, “to deposit”, or “to file” something in a designated location, often with an implication of safekeeping or formal registration. The term derives from the combination of the prefix hinter‑ (“behind, at the back”) and the verb legen (“to lay, to put”), and it has been used in German since the early modern period, initially in the context of physical objects stored out of sight.

In everyday language hinterlegen is used for actions such as depositing money in a bank, filing documents in an archive, or storing data in a digital repository. In the banking sector the phrase Geld hinterlegen refers to the act of placing funds under the custody of a financial institution, often as collateral or as part of a trust arrangement. Legal contexts employ the term for the formal filing of statutes, contracts, or claims with a court or a public register, emphasizing that the item is now officially recorded and therefore enforceable.

In information technology, hinterlegen is applied to the practice of saving configuration files, backups, or code snippets in a version‑control system or a cloud storage service. The concept stresses that the material is retained for later retrieval rather than being actively processed.

Related expressions include ablage­ort (“storage location”), deponieren (“to deposit”), and archivieren (“to archive”). While “hinterlegen” carries a neutral connotation of proper placement, it can also imply a degree of trust, as the holding party is expected to preserve the item securely and make it available upon request.