Cookie definition

A cookie is a small file that stores Internet settings. Almost every website uses cookie technology. It is downloaded by your Internet browser on the first visit to a website. The next time this website is opened with the same user device, the cookie and the information stored in it is either sent back to the website that created it (first-party cookie) or sent to another website it belongs to (third-party cookie). This enables the website to detect that you have opened it previously with this browser and in some cases to vary the displayed content.

Cookies are useful, as they can improve the user experience on opening a website that you have already visited a number of times. Provided you use the same user device and the same browser as before, cookies remember for example your preferences, how you use a site, and adapt the displayed offerings to be more relevant to your personal interest and needs.

Depending on their function and intended purpose, cookies can be divided into two categories on this website:

1. Essential cookies

2. Cookies requiring consent

Essential cookies, which can also be described as "strictly necessary" cookies, ensure functions without which you would not be able to use this website as intended. These cookies are used exclusively by this website and are therefore so-called first-party cookies.

A first-party cookie also saves your decision regarding the use of cookies on this website. Your consent is not required for the use of essential cookies.

Essential cookies cannot be disabled on our website itself. In general, you can disable cookies in your browser at any time. Most browsers offer the following options within the privacy settings:

• Do not accept cookies
• Delete all cookies when closing the browser
• Do not accept cookies from third parties (e.g. advertising banners)
• Ask for permission for each cookie

List of essential cookies

Cookie-Name: cookie-consent

• Provider: this website
• Purpose: Stores the user's cookie preferences selected in the cookie dialog. Contains a list of allowed groups. Thus, the content is always at least "essential" as soon as the dialog has been answered for the first time and can also currently contain "analytics-and-marketing", if the user accepts cookies requiring consent.
• Expiration: 1 year
• Category: essential cookie, first-party cookie

Cookie-Name: gtm-disable

• Provider: this website
• Purpose: It is stored whether cookie based tags from the Google Tag Manager are allowed to set cookies or not. The value can be "true" (no cookies allowed) or "false" (cookies allowed).
• Expiration: 1 year
• Category: essential cookie, first-party cookie

Cookies requiring consent can be defined as cookies which are not strictly necessary from a legal perspective.

Analytics cookies help us to understand how visitors interact with this website by collecting and reporting information anonymously. For the continuous improvement of our website, we track data for statistical and analytical purposes, such as the number of visits or the impact of specific pages of our web presence and therefore optimize our content.

Marketing cookies are used to target advertising to a user (behavioral targeting). The goal of using marketing cookies is to display ads which are particularly relevant for the website users.

List of cookies requiring consent

Cookie-Name: _ga

• Provider: Google
• Purpose: Used to distinguish users.
• Expiration: 2 years
• Category: Analytics cookie, third-party cookie

Cookie-Name: _gid

• Provider: Google
• Purpose: Used to distinguish users.
• Expiration: 24 hours
• Category: Analytics cookie, third-party cookie

Cookie-Name: _gat…

• Provider: Google
• Purpose: Used to throttle request rate.
• Expiration: 1 minute
• Category: Analytics cookie, third-party cookie

Additional Note – Local Storage:

Besides cookies, this website also uses a local storage to offer users a functional website. In the local storage data is stored in the cache of your browser until the browser cache is emptied or browser data is deleted. The data stored in the local storage cannot be accessed by third parties.

You can delete the cache / the browser data in the settings of your browser. We would like to point out that in this case there may be functional restrictions.