The number of business declaring bankruptcy is now higher than at any point in the past decade. The damage is enormous, and there are no indications of improvement this year in sight. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk—or have already disappeared.

Germany’s economy is suffering from a severe wave of bankruptcies. Corporate insolvencies have been rising for several months, often at double-digit percentage rates. „The economic crisis is costing a rapidly growing number of companies their survival,” said Volker Treier, head of foreign trade at the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), referring to two consecutive years of recession, the German newspaper Welt reported .

The Federal Statistical Office reported nearly 22,000 corporate insolvencies in 2024, the highest number in almost a decade. According to authorities, the increase stands at 22.4%, following a similar 22% surge the previous year.

„Companies are facing significant problems,” explains Frank Schlein, managing director of the Crif Germany financial information service provider. He highlights several key issues, including a persistent lack of orders due to a sluggish domestic economy and slow global trade, bad production conditions due to high energy and labor costs, and an increasingly burdensome bureaucracy. Many companies have also failed to adapt structurally. The effects of compensatory measures brought during the pandemic are still being felt, as insolvency filing requirements were suspended for months, and some businesses received substantial government support during COVID-19.

„All in all, the presence of multiple overlapping crises is increasing financial instability for businesses,” Schlein adds.

The economic fallout is significant. A Creditreform analysis shows that the rate increase of large-scale bankruptcies far surpassed last year’s average. The credit rating agency estimates that total losses from unpaid claims amount to approximately €56 billion. Studies indicate that creditors often wind up high and dry, and can recover very little, with more than 90% of claims largely written off. Creditreform also estimates that around 320,000 jobs are either at risk or have already been lost. This level was last seen during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020.