A two-dimensional germanium allotrope, germanene, has been synthesized for the first time on a gold (111) surface using molecular beam epitaxy. This work demonstrates the successful growth of a flat, honeycomb-structured germanene layer, similar to the formation of silicene on silver (111) surfaces. The germanene layer was identified through synchrotron radiation core-level spectroscopy and advanced density functional theory (DFT) calculations, revealing it as a sqrt(3)xsqrt(3)R(30°) germanene layer on a sqrt(7)xsqrt(7)R(19.1°) Au(111) supercell. This discovery provides compelling evidence for the existence of a novel synthetic germanium-based material, germanene, which is a graphene-like structure. The study highlights the potential of germanene for applications in high-mobility electronics, optoelectronics, and topological insulators due to its predicted robust properties. The research also addresses the challenges of growing germanene on gold surfaces, avoiding the formation of a surface alloy that occurs on silver surfaces. The results show that germanene can be grown with a very flat structure, with minimal corrugation, and its electronic properties were analyzed using core-level spectroscopy. The findings contribute to the growing understanding of two-dimensional materials and their potential applications in future technologies.A two-dimensional germanium allotrope, germanene, has been synthesized for the first time on a gold (111) surface using molecular beam epitaxy. This work demonstrates the successful growth of a flat, honeycomb-structured germanene layer, similar to the formation of silicene on silver (111) surfaces. The germanene layer was identified through synchrotron radiation core-level spectroscopy and advanced density functional theory (DFT) calculations, revealing it as a sqrt(3)xsqrt(3)R(30°) germanene layer on a sqrt(7)xsqrt(7)R(19.1°) Au(111) supercell. This discovery provides compelling evidence for the existence of a novel synthetic germanium-based material, germanene, which is a graphene-like structure. The study highlights the potential of germanene for applications in high-mobility electronics, optoelectronics, and topological insulators due to its predicted robust properties. The research also addresses the challenges of growing germanene on gold surfaces, avoiding the formation of a surface alloy that occurs on silver surfaces. The results show that germanene can be grown with a very flat structure, with minimal corrugation, and its electronic properties were analyzed using core-level spectroscopy. The findings contribute to the growing understanding of two-dimensional materials and their potential applications in future technologies.