DE VAT IDs not validated correctly

I currently can not validate DE VAT IDs server side.
In woocommerce payment form it works.
But when user tries to submit the payment form the validation fails on the server.

In the logging i see that the same VAT ID is parsed with and without DE depending on form validation or server side validation (I have replaced the vat id with 123456789):

Success: VAT ID is valid (Country: [DE]; VAT ID: [123456789]; Company: []; Method: [soap]) 2024-07-17T11:03:32+00:00 Info Error: VAT is not valid (checkout) (Country: [DE]; VAT ID: [DE123456789]; Company: []; Method: [])