[1] The 27 volumes published thus far cover more than 23,000 individuals and families who lived in the German language area (Sprachraum).

NDB is published in German by the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities and printed by Duncker & Humblot in Berlin.

[needs update] An NDB article usually contains genealogical information such as date and place of birth, date and place of death, tomb, parents, grandparents, marriages, divorces, number of children, alternate and birth names, academic degrees, a curriculum vitae in whole sentences, a valuation of the subject's political, economic, social, scientific, technical or artistic achievements, a bibliography and references to portraits.

Only deceased persons with a close relation to the German language area are recorded.

This cooperative project of the Bavarian State Library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek), the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften), the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) the Foundation Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, and Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts also makes available data of Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB), Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815-1950 (ÖBL) (Austrian Biographical Dictionary 1815–1950), Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz / Dictionnaire Historique de la Suisse / Dizionario Storico della Svizzera (HLS / DHS / DSS), Slovenska Biografija [sl], Rheinland-Pfälzische Personendatenbank (RPPB), Sächsische Biografie (Saxon Biography), and Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon (OeML).