I'm not doubting your experience but mine is different. I'm doing business in the Köln/Düsseldorf area and while the experience could be nicer, it is far from terrible. I have been involved in founding five companies (four GmbH and one GmbH & Co. KG) and closing one down in the last 10 years and I would have no qualms to go for another one. Each founding took about 6-8 weeks from first filing to entry into the registry. Getting a VAT ID can take a few weeks longer -- or in one case months longer -- but you can do business with your normal company tax ID and sort it out at the end of the year. If you are really in a hurry, buy a shell company for a few grands plus corpus and you can be running within a week or two. Notaries are really helpful in that case.
From my point of view there are also not many fees and none of them are recurring. IIRC, you have to pay the notary, the registry and the tax office for services rendered. Once you are registered, there are other fees, e.g. IHK (trade association) membership or insurances, but that is not part of the registration, that is cost of doing business.
Liquidation on the other hand takes 12 month (a transitory period required by law) and a few weeks before and after the liquidation for notary appointments. That's it. All in all it took maybe 18 month from decision point to deletion from the registry and the main part of the extra 6 month was deliberation what needed to be done before the transition started.
Notaries often have a list of available shells and can set you up quickly. That's what we did, so talk to your notary. Another way is to use a specialized service like [1].
The relevant keywords for research are "Vorratsgesellschaft" or "Mantelgesellschaft". The former are empty companies with no business activity, the latter are older companies with business history but inactive now. Mantelgesellschaften are nice because they bring a credit history along making stuff like leasing easier but cause a little bit more effort at time of purchase.
From my point of view there are also not many fees and none of them are recurring. IIRC, you have to pay the notary, the registry and the tax office for services rendered. Once you are registered, there are other fees, e.g. IHK (trade association) membership or insurances, but that is not part of the registration, that is cost of doing business.
Liquidation on the other hand takes 12 month (a transitory period required by law) and a few weeks before and after the liquidation for notary appointments. That's it. All in all it took maybe 18 month from decision point to deletion from the registry and the main part of the extra 6 month was deliberation what needed to be done before the transition started.