What is "evidence" (Beweismittel) in IAM, what must it contain, and what are typical examples?

Evidence is a document or object from a reliable source that contains information about the applicant and can be used to verify an identity or attributes; it must contain the applicant's name and should carry security features that make it hard to reproduce.

The definition has three parts:

• Origin: it comes from a reliable source (a register, an authority, a certified issuer). A self-written note is not evidence.
• Content: it must contain the applicant's name and may additionally contain a unique identifier, physical or biometric features and any other statements about the person.
• Security features that make reproduction difficult, such as holograms, chips or watermarks; otherwise anyone could forge the "proof".

Typical examples are identity documents, certified deeds, credit cards and driving licences. They differ in strength: a passport with biometric chip is strong evidence for identity, a credit card only proves that some bank issued a card in this name.

Go deeper:

• Identity document (Wikipedia) — what makes an ID document hard to forge: security features, chips and biometric data.