We report the fabrication and characterization of high-speed germanium on silicon-on-insulator lateral PIN photodetectors. At an incident wavelength of 850 nm, 10 x 10-mum detectors with finger spacing S of 0.4 mum (0.6 mum) produced a -3-dB bandwidth of 29 GHz (27 GHz) at a bias voltage of -1 V The detectors with S = 0.6 mum had external quantum efficiency of 34% at 850 nm and 46% at 900 nm and dark current of 0.02 muA at -1-V bias.