Have you ever almost had a cardiac arrest because you accidentally deleted an important .de domain? Until now, .de domains were immediately and irrevocably gone when DENIC received the request. And interesting domains were often registered again minutes later - by whoever.
That's over now: DENIC has issued a Redemption Grace Period introduced. As of 03.12.2013, the following applies: If a .de domain has been deleted, the previous holder - and only this holder - has a period of 30 daysto reactivate it with a RESTORE.
We think this change is good - domaingrabbers probably less so.
You can find detailed information about this here at DENIC.