Yes. We check IDs of our new customers. We find that this is one of the most effective ways of preventing abuse. A short time after we have verified your ID, the personal data we collected to process your order will be deleted in accordance with German data protection laws. After your first order, you don't need to provide your ID again. --Katie, Marketing, Hetzner Online
Kudos to Germany for sane-minded laws about personal data and to Hetzner for respecting such laws!
Can you confirm that you delete the ID after verification? Your sentence seems like a lawyer's answer.
What's ambiguous about that answer? "the personal data we collected to process your order will be deleted" sounds pretty clear. Obviously a copy of an ID is personal data.
they did ask copy of passport for dedicated server this summer. Don't know about VPS though