Reasearches in Germany have nowadays access to confidential micro data compiled from official statistics ina way that could have been dreamt of just few years ago. This paper describes the new institutions that grant data access - mots importantly the research data centers located inside the data producing agencies - and how to access the micor data, and presents information about selected recently released data sets with a high potential for scientific research and policy evaluation. Furthermore, we contrast the German situation with the Danish way of handling research access to confidential micro data. Finally, we take a look at ongoing projects that will further improve data access in Germany.