[1] The GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements.

It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format.

[2] The GND became operational in April 2012 and integrates the content of the following authority files, which have since been discontinued: It is referred to by identifiers named GND-ID.

At the time of its introduction on 5 April 2012, the GND held 9,493,860 files, including 2,650,000 personalised names.

[3] The GND participates in the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) project.