[helge5]

The 2k/y (a little more) is what I pay for a one person GmbH serviced by an accountant. If you employ people or earn significant money, it'll cost you extra (employing people has its own filing/processing requirements, but the tax-account will do that for you, so it is not 'hard' per se). Note: you can reduce costs by doing a lot of stuff on your own, but well, do you want to? :-)

BTW: If you plan Google big and want to take on multiple investors pouring in 100k's or millions, you wouldn't usually found a 'GmbH' or UG but an 'AG' (Aktiengesellschaft, a share based construct). This involves more reporting/regulations but also makes it easier to deal with the ownership of the company.

Wrt your 'Google ever being founded in Germany'. The process of founding a company is not an obstacle, that part is easy enough. Other obstacles are manyfold: you don't have nearly as much VC money available, there are strong data protection laws, employing people is a significant liability in Germany (vs California where you can quit them any day), side-costs of employment are very high (state required insurances for medical, unemployment, disability, pension, ...) etc etc.

Summary: If you plan a small software/IT business it probably makes sense to just start with an UG and see where it goes.