German economy

Germany
World economic rank	4. (nominal) (2017)
currency	Euro (EUR)
Trade organizations	EU , WTO , OECD
Key figures
Gross domestic product (GDP)	$ 4.029 billion (nominal) (2018) $ 4.171 billion ( PPP ) (2017) 3.263.4 billion euros (2017)
GDP per capita	$ 44,550 (nominal) (2017) $ 50,425 (PPP) (2017)
GDP by economic sector	Agriculture : 0.9% Industry : 24.2% Construction : 5.6% Services : 69.3% (2019)
growth	▲ 2.2% (2017)
inflation rate	1.7% (2017)
Employed	▲ 44.74 million (Dec. 2017)
Employed persons by economic sector	Agriculture : 1.3% (2019) Industry : 24.1% (2019) Services : 74.5% (2019)
Activity rate	55.9% (2019)
Unemployed	2.385 million (Dec 2017)
Unemployment rate	4.9% (Apr. 2019)
Foreign trade
export	€ 1203.8 billion (2016)
Export goods	Cars and parts (19%), machines (14%), chemical products (9%), for 2016
Export partner	USA : € 106.8 billion (2016) FR : € 101.1 billion (2016) GB : € 85.9 billion (2016) NL : € 78.4 billion (2016) CN : € 76.0 billion . € (2016)
import	€ 954.9 billion (2016)
Import goods	Cars and car parts (11%), data processing equipment (11%), chemical products (8%), for 2016
Import partner	CN : € 94.2 billion (2016) NL : € 83.1 billion (2016) FR : € 65.7 billion (2016) USA : € 58.0 billion (2016) IT : € 51.7 billion . € (2016)
Foreign trade balance	€ 248.9 billion (2016)
public finances
Public debt	64.1% of GDP (4th quarter 2017)
Government revenue	45.2% of GDP (2017)
Government spending	43.9% of GDP (2017)
Budget balance	+1.3% of GDP (2017)

In terms of gross domestic product, Germany's economy is the largest economy in Europe and the fourth largest economy in the world. In terms of gross domestic product per capita in 2015, Germany ranked ninth in Europe in US dollars and 18th internationally. Important areas are services (69%), industry (24%) and construction (6%); the production of agricultural goods is of little importance. Germany is poor in raw materials and energy resources; the extraction of raw materials has hardly any economic impact. The majority of German foreign trade takes place with other industrialized countries; a considerable foreign trade surplus is achieved. The automotive, commercial vehicle, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and chemical industries are considered to be the most competitive branches of German industry worldwide . In 2016, 55% of exports in the service sector went to the EDP, IT and communications sectors. Business software and the insurance industry (especially reinsurance ) are internationally significant.

According to the global competitiveness index of the World Economic Forum , Germany ranks 5th (out of 137 countries) of the most competitive countries in the world. In 2017, Germany ranks 26th out of 180 countries in the index for economic freedom .

Germany is considered to be the world's most important trade fair location ; numerous leading trade fairs take place here . Congresses, exhibitions and an internationally important museum and event landscape are an important basis for travel and tourism in Germany .

Economic structure

Location quality and competitiveness

Several indices certify Germany's high location quality and international competitiveness :

• Ernst & Young European Attractiveness Survey (2013): 1st place in Europe, 6th place worldwide
• ATKearney FDI Confidence Index (2013): 1st place in Europe, 7th place worldwide
• UNCTAD WorldInvestment Prospects Survey (2013): 1st place in Europe, 3rd place worldwide
• Deloitte Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index (2013): 1st place in Europe, 2nd place worldwide
• Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft: Ranking of industrial location quality: 4th place in Europe, 5th place worldwide

Employment structure

Almost three quarters of the working people (74.5%) in Germany are employed in the service sector (as of 2019). The social, educational and health services, transport, hospitality, housing and finance are essential. The manufacturing industry ( industry ) employs 24.1% of the workforce; Fisheries , agriculture and forestry 1.3%.

raw materials

Germany has significant raw material deposits (see also: Geography of Germany # Raw Materials ), especially in the area of ​​coal deposits ( hard coal and lignite ), in the area of potash salt , building materials and stones and earth . There are also natural gas deposits in Lower Saxony . The densely populated industrial country with the fifth highest energy consumption (after the USA, China, Japan and India) worldwide is nevertheless dependent on raw material imports. The importance of domestic hard coal from the Ruhr area and the Saarland as well as lignite in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt has decreased in the past decades. In 2005 around 47% of the electricity was generated and 24% of the total energy consumption came from coal, hard coal and the coke produced from it, which is of particular importance for the local steel and metalworking industries today. In the 1960s, Germany's own oil production generated 30 percent of domestic demand, now only 3%.

Agriculture and Forestry

The gross value added in agriculture amounted to 23.1 billion euros in 2018. This corresponds to 0.8% of the total gross value added.

With 16.7 million hectares, around half of Germany's area was used for agriculture in 2016. Of this, 70.6% was arable land, 28.2% permanent grassland and 1.2% permanent crops . The most commonly grown arable crops were winter wheat (on 26.6% of the arable land), silage maize (18.2%) and winter rape (11.2%).

There were around 275,400 farms in 2016. The number of farms has been decreasing steadily since reunification . However, in the 2010s this trend slowed. What is noticeable here is the more pronounced decrease among smaller farms with less than 100 hectares of agricultural area, while the number of larger farms with a cultivated land area of ​​200 to 500 hectares is even increasing moderately. There is a north-south and an even more pronounced east-west divide in terms of farm size. The average size in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt is over 270 hectares, whereas in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg it is less than 35 hectares.

Energy industry

→ Main article : German energy industry  and energy transition by country # Germany

The primary energy consumption in Germany was in 2014 at 13,080 PJ , which was the lowest level since reunification. Oil had the largest share with 35%, followed by natural gas with 20.5%, hard coal with 12.6%, lignite with 12.0%, renewable energies with 11.1% and nuclear energy with 8.1%. In 2005, the primary energy consumption was 14,238 PJ; the second highest value in Europe and the sixth highest worldwide.

In the course of the energy turnaround since 2000 at the latest, the economic importance of renewable energies has increased significantly, which meanwhile represent a significant economic factor for German industry. In 2019, the amount of regeneratively generated electricity fed into the electricity grid was 46% of the total amount of electricity fed into the grid. In the heating and transport sector, however, the proportion was significantly lower.

Manufacturing

Pay structure in manufacturing

The manufacturing industry, and in particular mechanical engineering , with its many hidden champions make a decisive contribution to the German export surplus .

Distribution of income and wealth

→ Main articles : Distribution of income in Germany  and distribution of wealth (Germany)

The income inequality in Germany was stated by the OECD in 2005 slightly below the OECD -average, where the inequality since the mid-1990s has increased and according to the OECD since 2000, income inequality and poverty have increased more than in any other OECD country.

“Overall, inequality increased from 1992 to 2003, the income spread increased with a shift towards those earning higher incomes. Clear differences between the employees and the self-employed are to be noted; in particular, the inequality of business incomes has increased. "

- Joachim Merz : Research Institute for Liberal Professions (2006)

In 2008, according to DIW figures, a median income was 1,252 euros, with a Gini index of 0.29 (a measure of unequal distribution where 0 stands for equal distribution and 1 for absolute unequal distribution).

The following table shows the net income situation in 2003. In bold, the column in which the income earners of all occupational groups are considered together. Income inequality is shown by the fact that the top 10% income earners already receive 31.59% of total income, the top 5% income earners already 21.28%, the top 1-% already 8.11%. Conversely, the bottom 50% of income earners only receive 18.71%, i.e. less than the top 5% earners.

Distribution of wealth in Germany in 2002 and 2007 by decile . Left the poorest, right the richest decile.

Explanation	All	Entrepreneur	Liberal professions	Employees
Taxpayer share (%)	100	10.62	1.78	87.60
Income share (%)	100	13.67	2.86	83.47
Mean (€)	29,030	37,353	46,821	27,660
Median (€)	22,781	13,751	21,937	23,517
Distribution (Gini Index)	0.43759	0.68332	0.59280	0.38494
Quantiles: income shares
≤ 5%	0.24	0.18	0.14	0.25
1st decile	0.88	0.58	0.47	0.98
2nd decile	2.88	1.24	1.22	3.57
3rd decile	4.72	1.80	1.97	5.41
4th decile	6.00	2.45	2.82	6.63
5th decile	7.23	3.25	3.98	7.88
6th decile	8.67	4.38	6.03	9.32
7th decile	10.31	6.21	9.40	10.93
8th decile	12.31	9.13	13.88	12.88
9th decile	15.41	14.44	20.09	15.80
10th decile	31.59	56.51	40.15	26.59
≥ 95%	21.28	44.62	25.98	16.38
≥ 99%	8.11	23.25	7.670	4,470
90/10 ratio	35.90	97.40	85.40	27.10
95/5 ratio	88.70	247.90	185.60	65.50

According to DIW figures, the distribution of wealth in Germany shows a strong unequal distribution ( Gini index 0.799). Inequality has been increasing since the 1980s. This concentration of wealth has increased since the mid-1990s: in 2007 the richest 5% of the population owned 46% of total wealth, the richest percent already 23%. By contrast, the wealth of the poorest strata of the population declined:

“By contrast, more than two thirds of the total population had little or no individual net worth. The bottom 70 percent of the population sorted by wealth have a share of total wealth of less than nine percent and thus around 1.5 percentage points less than in 2002. "

However, it must be taken into account that the self-employed and freelancers have to operate a capital-based pension scheme, while employees and civil servants pay into the pay-as-you-go social security system or make pension claims against the state and thus do not acquire any formal assets. If these pension entitlements are taken into account as assets at their present value, the formal gap between employees and self-employed is significantly reduced.

“The present value of all pension entitlements in Germany in 2007, with an assumed discount rate of three percent, was around 4.6 trillion euros (excluding entitlements to company pensions and professional benefits for insured persons who are still in employment and excluding survivors benefits). On average, this corresponds to an individual entitlement of 67,000 euros. This value varies greatly according to length of employment and professional position. Civil servants and retirees hold well above-average assets from pension entitlements. Taking into account the pension entitlements, the dominant position of the self-employed in the net financial and tangible asset hierarchy is put into perspective "

- Joachim R. Frick, Markus M. Grabka : Weekly report of DIW Berlin No. 3/2010

Regional developments

See also : List of German federal states by gross domestic product

See also : List of German cities by gross domestic product  and List of rural districts by income

As in all large countries, there is also a pronounced economic gap in Germany between economically stronger and weaker regions. Some of the origins of these structures are very old, such as the banking system in Frankfurt or the port city of Hamburg , while other regions such as Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia received their formative structures during industrialization. After the Second World War, a new economic dynamic set in, especially in southern Bavaria, which was largely brought about by companies that had fled here, such as Siemens from Berlin or Audi from Zwickau .

Today the most economically strong areas are in the metropolitan areas of the south, especially in Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Mannheim . What is characteristic here is the relatively high proportion of industry and manufacturing compared to other European metropolitan regions. The region around the port city of Hamburg in the north is also one of the economically strong areas. This contrasts with the conurbations of central and northern Germany such as the Rhine-Ruhr area, Hanover, Bremen, Berlin and Dresden, which - in contrast to the south - experienced a structural change through de-industrialization in the second half of the 20th century and their economic structure therefore partially had to realign.

Rural regions live mainly from medium-sized companies, which also achieve a relatively high density in southern Germany and thus stimulate these regions economically. Some of these companies are relatively unknown market leaders in a very specialized global industry, which is why they are referred to as hidden champions . In central and northern Germany, these structures are weaker, which is why rural regions there attract fewer immigrants and demographically shrink, and in some cases have higher unemployment with lower incomes. This development hit the sparsely populated areas in the east of the new federal states most dramatically after 1990, especially Western Pomerania , the Altmark , the Uckermark and the Prignitz as well as the Lausitz . Some of these areas have always been structurally weak and have lagged behind Germany's economic development for centuries. The economic structures in the south and west of the new federal states, the agglomeration of Berlin and in western Mecklenburg are more favorable .

Studies such as the future atlas compiled by Prognos have made these regional developments the subject of investigation. The respective developments are quantified on the basis of various indicators , for example from the labor and real estate market , and compared with one another in a ranking . These rankings reflect the situation of the economic gap in Germany described above: in addition to the above-mentioned economically strong areas, the majority of the other top regions are also located in the south of the Federal Republic, such as Erlangen , Regensburg and Darmstadt . Only the regions of Wolfsburg , Bonn and Braunschweig were able to refute this trend. The economically weakest regions, on the other hand, are all in the new federal states.

Differences in gross domestic product

The gross domestic product in the individual federal states of Germany is quite different. Germany as a whole achieved a GDP of EUR 29,406 per inhabitant in 2009 (in current prices). The five territorial states that were formerly part of the GDR are between 21,264 (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) and 22,228 EUR / inhabitant. (Saxony). The seven western German territorial states achieved a GDP between 25,511 (Rhineland-Palatinate) and 35,731 EUR / inhabitant. (Hesse); Berlin - western and eastern parts together - had a GDP per capita of 26,265, Bremen 40,529, Hamburg 48,229 EUR / inhabitant.

measure up

→ Main article : List of the largest German trade fair events  and the world's leading trade fair # World leading trade fairs in Germany (selection)

Foreign trade

Trading partners and foreign trade statistics

The following important information is missing from this section:

The importance of the EU internal market should be discussed in a separate section . 70% export to a domestic market is very relative.

Help Wikipedia by researching and pasting it .

German import and export figures ( semi-logarithmic scale)

See also : List of Countries by Trading Partner

In 2016, the share of exports to EU countries was 58.6% of total German exports, 36.6% of which went to the countries of the euro zone. The remaining export shares were accounted for 9.4% to European non-EU countries, 17.5% to Asia, Australia and Oceania, 12.3% to America and 2.0% to Africa. The EU countries accounted for 57.7% of imports in 2016 (37.6% of which were in the eurozone). The remaining import shares were 11.1% in the European non-EU countries, 20.6% in Asia, Australia and Oceania, 8.7% in America and 1.7% in Africa.

The People's Republic of China was Germany's most important trading partner in 2016 with a total value of goods exchanged of 170.2 billion euros. Of this, 76.0 billion euros were exports to China and 94.2 billion euros were imports from China. In 2016, France was Germany's second largest trading partner with a total exchanged value of 166.8 billion euros. Of this, 101.1 billion euros were exports and 65.7 billion euros were imports. The third largest trading partner in 2016 was the United States, with an exchange of goods totaling 164.8 billion euros, of which 106.8 billion euros in exports and 58.0 billion euros in imports.

In 2016, German exports reached an all-time high. Compared to the previous year, export sales rose by 0.9% to 1,203.8 billion euros. Imports rose in 2016 by 0.6% to 954.9 billion euros. At the same time, this is the highest export surplus generated of 248.9 billion euros.

However, this record trade surplus (significantly more exports than imports) is also viewed critically. On the one hand, because Germany, with its export orientation, is heavily dependent on developments abroad. On the other hand, it is criticized that the German economy is preventing sustainable development in Europe through this current account imbalance. With its trade surplus, Germany benefits when neighboring European countries strengthen their domestic economies, but conversely, neighbors cannot export more to Germany.

The globally increasing trade leads to an increased division of labor and thus not only to an increase in exports, but also in imports. Some economists, such as B. Hans-Werner Sinn , because of this increase in imported inputs, are of the opinion that Germany is degenerating into a bazaar economy .

In 2017, Germany exported goods to the value of 1,279.1 billion euros. Goods to the value of 1,034.3 billion euros were imported. This resulted in an export surplus of 244.7 billion euros.

Merchandise

In 2016, Germany mainly exported motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts, machines, chemical products as well as data processing equipment, electrical and optical products. These four groups of goods accounted for 50.5% of total German exports in 2016. A large part of German trading activities take place within industrialized countries, the same industry or even the same company (see above), so that automobiles, machines and Chemical products are also essential imported products. However, significantly more of these goods are exported from Germany than imported.

In 2016, cars and car parts accounted for 19.0% of German exports, machines 14.2% and chemical products 8.9% of German exports. Motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts were Germany's most important import goods (import value of 106.1 billion euros in 2016).

numbers

Germany's most important trading partners for exports (2017, in billion euros)

rank	Destination Country	2017	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006
1.	United States	111.49	86.83	73.69	65.6	54.4	71.4	73.4	78.0
2.	France	105.24	104.34	101.56	90.7	81.3	93.7	93.9	85.0
3.	People's Republic of China	86.17	66.63	64.76	53.6	37.3	34.1	29.9	27.5
4th	Netherlands	85.70	70.86	69.31	63.2	53.2	65.8	62.4	56.5
5.	United Kingdom	84.44	72.94	65.33	59.5	53.2	64.2	71.0	64.7
6th	Austria	62.80	57.53	57.87	53.7	46.1	54.7	52.8	49.5
7th	Italy	65.53	55.84	62.12	58.5	50.6	62.0	65.1	59.3
8th.	Poland	59.45	42.23	43.47	38.1	31.1	40.8	36.1	29.0
9.	Switzerland	53.96	48.83	47.71	41.7	35.5	39.0	36.4	34.8
10.	Belgium	44.30	44.54	46.97	46.4	41.8	49.9	51.4	46.7
11.	Spain	43.05	31.17	34.87	34.4	31.3	42.7	48.2	41.8
12.	Czech Republic	41.66	31.55	30.63	27.0	22.0	27.6	26.0	22.5
13.	Sweden	26.72	21.17	22.01	19.6	15.5	20.1	21.7	18.8
14th	Russia	25.84	38.05	34.41	26.4	20.6	32.3	28.2	23.4
15th	Hungary	24.95	16.34	15.69	-	-	-	-	-
16.	Turkey	21.46	20.07	20.14	16.2	11.6	15.1	15.1	14.4
17th	Japan	19.53	17.10	15.12	-	-	-	-	-
	All in all	1,278.93	1,097.34	1,060.20	959.5	803.3	984.1	969.0	893.0

The most important German trading partners (2016, in billion euros)

space	Country	export	import	balance
1	European Union -25	756.77	604.62	152.13
2	People's Republic of China	76.05	94.17	−18.13
3	France	101.11	65.65	+35.45
4th	United States	106.82	57.97	+48.85
5	Netherlands	78.43	83.14	−4.71
6th	United Kingdom	85.94	35.65	+50.28
7th	Italy	61.26	51.74	+9.53
8th	Poland	54.58	46.49	+8.09
9	Austria	59.78	38.54	+21.23
10	Switzerland	50.16	43.90	+6.27
11	Czech Republic	38.09	42.25	−4.15
12	Belgium	41.58	37.85	+3.72
13	Spain	40.50	27.87	+12.63
14th	Russia	21.51	26.47	−4.96
15th	Hungary	22.75	24.99	−2.24
16	Japan	18.31	21.92	−3.61
17th	Sweden	24.89	14.31	+10.58
18th	Turkey	21.85	15.46	+6.39
19th	Denmark	18.17	11.68	+6.49
20th	Slovakia	12.71	14.36	−1.66
21st	Romania	13.56	12.51	+1.05
22nd	South Korea	17.23	7.75	+9.48
23	Norway	8.66	12.69	−4.04
24	Ireland	5.84	11.83	−5.99
25th	India	9.78	7.65	+2.13
26th	Finland	9.23	8.03	+1.20
27	Brazil	8.53	7.97	+0.56
28	Mexico	11.10	5.16	+5.94
29	Taiwan	7.54	8.57	−1.03
30th	United Arab Emirates	14.46	0.89	+13.57
31	South Africa	8.81	6.22	+2.59
32	Portugal	7.95	5.70	+2.25
33	Canada	9.43	4.10	+5.33
34	Malaysia	4.75	7.64	−2.89
35	Singapore	6.71	5.37	+1.34
36	Vietnam	2.61	8.81	−6.20
37	Australia	8.98	2.16	+6.82
38	Slovenia	4.75	5.50	−0.75
39	Thailand	4.40	5.38	−0.98
40	Luxembourg	5.36	3.11	+2.25
41	Hong Kong	6.75	1.56	+5.19
42	Saudi Arabia	7.26	0.62	+6.64
43	Greece	4.96	1.91	+3.05
44	Bulgaria	3.50	3.21	+0.29
45	Indonesia	2.42	3.85	−1.43
46	Israel	4.00	1.75	+2.25
47	Bangladesh	0.70	4.92	−4.22
48	Egypt	4.41	1.13	+3.27
49	Ukraine	3.60	1.79	+1.81
50	Philippines	2.05	2.85	−0.80
51	Lithuania	3.01	1.71	+1.31

German companies

The table shows the ten largest German companies according to sales in the 2016 financial year.

space	Companies	Sales (in million euros)	Profit (in million euros)	Employees (in 1000)
1	Volkswagen	217.267	07,292	626.7
2	Daimler	153.261	12,902	282.4
3	BMW	094.160	09,386	124.7
4th	Siemens	079,600	05,600	351.0
5	Deutsche Telekom	073,100	21,400	218.3
6th	Robert Bosch GMBH	073,100	04,300	390.0
7th	Black group	069,000	...	225.0
8th	Uniper SE	067,285	...	012.6
9	BASF	057,550	06,309	114.0
10	German Post AG	057,300	03,500	500.0

See also : List of the largest companies in Germany

Its family businesses are of particular importance for the German economy . The table shows the ten largest German family businesses according to their turnover in the 2015 financial year.

space	Companies	sales	Number of employees	Owner family
01	Volkswagen	213,292,000,000	610.076	Porsche / Piech
02	BMW	092,200,000,000	122.244	Quandt
03	Black group	079,300,000,000	350,000	black
04th	Robert Bosch	070,600,000,000	374.778	Robert Bosch Foundation
05	Aldi (north + south)	062,200,000,000	250,000	Albrecht
06th	Metro AG	059,200,000,000	226,895	Haniel / Schmidt-Ruthenbeck / Beisheim
07th	Continental AG	039,232,000,000	208,000	Schaeffler
08th	Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA	027,626,000,000	222,305	Kröner-Fesenius (Foundation)
09	Merckle group of companies	023,378,000,000	033,422	Merckle
10	handle	018,089,000,000	049,450	Henkel Nf.

Key figures

All GDP values ​​are given in euros. The colors are shown in the following table:

positive values

negative values

year	GDP (in billion euros)	GDP per capita (in euros)	GDP growth (real)	Inflation rate ( in percent)	Unemployment rate ( in percent)	Budget balance ( in% of GDP)
1980	0.789.10	10,270	+1.3%	+ 5.4%	3.4%	k. A.
1981	0.823.80	10,700	+ 0.1%	+ 6.3%	4.8%	k. A.
1982	0.856.30	11,131	-0.8%	+ 5.3%	6.7%	k. A.
1983	0.897.90	11,712	+1.6%	+ 3.3%	8.0%	k. A.
1984	0.942.00	12,337	+ 2.8%	+ 2.4%	8.1%	k. A.
1985	0.983.40	12,912	+ 2.2%	+ 2.0%	8.1%	k. A.
1986	1,040.00	13,644	+ 2.4%	-0.1%	7.8%	k. A.
1987	1,074.00	14,089	+1.5%	+ 0.2%	7.8%	k. A.
1988	1,130.80	14,745	+ 3.7%	+1.3%	7.7%	k. A.
1989	1,202.70	15,526	+ 3.9%	+ 2.8%	6.8%	k. A.
1990	1,312.40	16,624	+ 5.7%	+ 2.7%	6.2%	k. A.
1991	1,579.80	19,754	+5.0%	+ 3.4%	5.5%	-3.2%
1992	1,695.30	21,060	+1.5%	+5.0%	6.6%	-2.6%
1993	1,748.60	21,602	-1.0%	+ 4.5%	7.8%	-3.1%
1994	1,830.20	22,555	+ 2.5%	+ 2.7%	8.4%	-2.5%
1995	1,898.90	23,354	+1.8%	+1.7%	8.2%	-9.4%
1996	1,926.30	23,646	+ 0.9%	+1.2%	8.9%	-3.5%
1997	1,967.10	24,133	+1.9%	+1.5%	9.7%	-2.9%
1998	2,018.20	24,780	+1.8%	+ 0.6%	9.4%	-2.5%
1999	2,064.90	25,360	+1.9%	+ 0.6%	8.6%	-1.7%
2000	2,116.40	25,983	+ 3.2%	+1.4%	8.0%	+ 0.8%
2001	2,179.80	26,741	+1.8%	+1.9%	7.8%	-3.1%
2002	2,209.20	27,082	± 0.0%	+1.4%	8.6%	-3.9%
2003	2,220.00	27,224	-0.7%	+1.0%	9.7%	-4.2%
2004	2,270.60	27,875	+ 0.7%	+1.8%	10.3%0	-3.7%
2005	2,300.80	28,288	+ 0.9%	+1.9%	11.0%0	-3.4%
2006	2,393.30	29,483	+ 3.9%	+1.8%	10.0%0	-1.7%
2007	2,513.20	31,030	+ 3.4%	+ 2.3%	8.6%	+ 0.2%
2008	2,561.70	31,719	+ 0.8%	+ 2.7%	7.4%	-0.2%
2009	2,460.20	30,568	-5.6%	+ 0.2%	7.7%	-3.2%
2010	2,580.10	32,136	+ 3.9%	+1.2%	6.9%	-4.2%
2011	2,703.10	33,673	+ 3.7%	+ 2.5%	5.9%	-1.0%
2012	2,758.20	34,296	+ 0.7%	+ 2.1%	5.4%	± 0.0%
2013	2,826.20	35,045	+ 0.6%	+1.6%	5.2%	-0.1%
2014	2,932.50	36,211	+1.9%	+ 0.8%	5.0%	+ 0.3%
2015	3,043.70	37,260	+1.5%	+ 0.1%	4.6%	+ 0.6%
2016	3,144.00	38,180	+1.9%	+ 0.4%	4.2%	+ 0.8%
2017	3,263.30	39,454	+ 2.2%	+1.7%	3.8%	+1.1%

Social investment

According to an evaluation by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft in cooperation with the non-profit Bertelsmann Foundation from 2018, two out of three companies are socially committed. The German economy spends around 9½ billion euros a year on the common good . Almost every second company (45%) donates money regularly. Over a third (34%) leave things such as food or furniture for charitable purposes, and more than every fourth company (26%) releases employees for social purposes. In general, the more employees a company has, the more often they donate money, things or time.

Economic history

German stock index CDAX 1840–2011

industrialization

→ Main articles : Economic history , industrial revolution in Germany  and high industrialization in Germany

The Stein-Hardenberg reforms in Prussia, the German Customs Union of 1834 and the founding of the Empire in 1871 were important institutional steps on the way to industrialization. With the founding period , which began in the 1840s, the industrial revolution began in Central Europe. After France had lost the Franco-Prussian War in 1870/71 , the German Empire imposed reparations of five billion gold francs on France ( Peace of Frankfurt ). France paid in tranches, the last of which in 1873. This inflow of capital increased the euphoria on the stock exchanges until there was a stock market crash in 1873 (“ founder crash ”). From it developed the so-called Great Depression (1873-1896) , a time of deflationary global economic growth in which the prices of important goods fell by up to 50 percent despite economic growth.

Industrial branches of the economy were initially the textile industry, which was not very important in Germany (e.g. flax spinning mill Hirschfelde HC Müller , mechanical cotton spinning mill and weaving mill in Augsburg ), which was followed by the very important railway industry ( history of the railway in Germany ). The railroad enabled lower transportation costs and times, and encouraged heavy industry , railroad construction , bridge building, and tunneling . Important heavy industry companies were Sächsische Maschinenfabrik , Borsig , Rheinisch-Westfälisches Kohlen-Syndikat , Friedrich Krupp AG , Thyssen AG and Mannesmann . The electrical industry (e.g. Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske , Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft ) and the chemical industry (e.g. Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik , Farbwerke Hoechst , Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayer & Co. ). Some banks, such as Deutsche Bank , Disconto-Gesellschaft and Dresdner Bank , became major companies after 1871; as well as some trading companies such as B. Hugo Stinnes GmbH .

The most important party in the Reichstag , which was established in 1871, was initially the National Liberal Party . A consequence of the economic crisis of 1873 was the emergence of lobby associations (e.g. Bund der Landwirte , Centralverband deutscher Industrielle and Bund der Industrielle ), some of which worked towards the introduction of tariffs to impede the import of competing goods. This was achieved in 1878/1879 with the protective tariff policy of Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck , which led to the split in the National Liberal Party and a new right-wing liberal political bloc took over the leadership of the Reichstag with the cartel parties . After Bismarck - his successor was Leo von Caprivi from 1890 to 1894 - there was a change in customs and trade policy as part of the “ New Course ” . Industrial development was encouraged by a system of trade agreements and agricultural tariffs were lowered. The following Chancellors revised this policy in parts, since the interests of industry and agriculture were opposed. The German Center Party urged that several social insurances be introduced (health insurance (1883), accident insurance (1884) and disability and old age insurance (1889)). On January 1, 1900, the civil code came into force; For the first time, it uniformly regulated the relationships between legally equal legal participants (persons and companies) for the whole of Germany.

On February 4, 1897, the Imperial Court ruled that the formation of business cartels is permitted and that compliance with concluded agreements can be sued in court. This sparked the cartel movement .

Development of the trade unions in Germany 1887–1914

The great miners' strike of 1889 led to the passing of a labor protection law in 1891 and marked the breakthrough for the Ruhr mining union . The Hamburg port workers' strike in 1896/97 lasted eleven weeks, ended unsuccessfully and was the reason for the prison submission . The 1903/04 textile workers' strike in Crimmitschau , which received national attention , among other things because of a ten-hour day, was not successful until 1908. In 1912 there was a miners' strike , during which the government sent 5,000 soldiers, among other things, ending the strike after eleven days. In 1914, shortly after the beginning of World War I, the trade unions decided not to go on strikes (" Burgfriedenspolitik ").

From 1890 the SAP / SPD was the party with the most votes, but from 1881 until the Reichstag election in 1912 , the Catholic Center Party almost always had the most seats in the Reichstag . In 1907 the so-called Bülow Block was formed in the Reichstag, an electoral alliance of conservatives, national liberals and left-wing liberals, which, however, broke up through the Reich financial reform of 1909, which included an increase in indirect taxes and the introduction of an inheritance tax. Subsequently, until the beginning of the First World War , the Reichstag led an alliance of conservatives and the center, while the defeating political forces founded the Hansabund . Because of its left-liberal position, the industrial associations soon left the federal government and its political importance lost weight.

World wars and interwar period

→ Main article : German economic history in the First World War  and the economy in National Socialist Germany

Share index of the Reich Statistical Office in Goldmark (1917–1928)

Share index of the Reich Statistical Office in Reichsmarks (1924–1942)

During the world wars, the economy was organized as a war economy . During the First World War, economic coordination was largely carried out by the War Resource Department . For individual raw materials, the companies united to form war raw material companies, such as the war metal company and the war chemicals company. This form of organization has occasionally been idealized as war socialism or common economy . Raw materials from the occupied territories were fed into their own economy, such as iron ore from Briey and agricultural products from Poland, but also hundreds of thousands of forced laborers from Belgium and Poland worked for the empire. There were food stamps for the allocation of food ; from 1915 the bread menu and later z. B. Meat cards, sugar cards and soap cards. The widespread black market for goods of all kinds was also significant.

After the end of the First World War, around ten million people in Europe left their homes for various reasons. Around 120,000 people of German origin, around 600,000 Russian refugees and around 70,000 Jews from East Central and Eastern Europe came from the former Russian Empire , with most immigrants moving further west after a short time, for example to France and the United States.

The former “ half moon camp” became the “homecoming camp” for refugees after the war, Zossen , 1919.

In addition, around 150,000 people from Alsace-Lorraine and 850,000 people from western Poland immigrated to Germany, where they were housed in so-called "homecoming camps".

Towards the end of the First World War, during the November Revolution, the unions and German industry agreed in the Stinnes-Legien Agreement that the unions would in future be treated as representatives of workers' interests and as collective bargaining partners ( freedom of association ), the eight-hour day was introduced and the socialization of the Means of production are absent (council republic , council communism ). The Central Working Group (1918 to 1924) was founded as a joint body . In the case of collective bargaining disputes, however, there was compulsory state arbitration and the arbitrators were able to enforce binding collective wage agreements against the will of the collective bargaining parties. The Works Council Act was in effect from 1920 to 1934 .

Finance Minister Matthias Erzberger reformed the Reich finances in 1919/1920 with the so-called Erzberger Finance and Tax Reform , for example the Reich Tax Code was adopted and direct wage tax deduction was introduced. He taxed the "war profiteers" among other things with the house interest tax , a capital increase tax, a changed inheritance tax and income tax and he levied a one-off property tax , the Reichsnotopfer .

Originally, one third of the banknotes in circulation was covered by gold and two thirds by commercial bills , but from August 1914 (beginning of the war), loan slips , Reich slips and bills of exchange were also issued by the Reichsbank. In addition, the Reichsbank's statutory obligation to redeem notes in gold was lifted. Since then, a distinction has been made between the so-called paper mark , the normal mark and the fictitious gold mark (see also: Goldzollmark ), a unit of account that resulted from the ratio of the value of the paper mark to the current US dollar rate (the United States adhered to the gold standard) . This marked the beginning of the German inflation period from 1914 to 1923 , when in November 1923 the rate for 1 US dollar was 4.2 trillion marks. The Rentenmark , supported by land charges , was introduced in 1923 as a parallel currency with a ratio of 1: 1 trillion. In 1924/1925 the Reichsmark replaced both currencies and the gold currency standard was introduced (40 percent of banknotes in circulation had to be in gold or gold-backed currencies).

From 1923 onwards, various measures stabilized the economic situation, although with the exception of 1925 the unemployment rate was always over eight percent. The Dawes Plan , which came into force in August 1924, was very important and enabled the German economy to take out new loans, primarily from the USA. For reinsurance, the Reichsbank became an institution independent of the Reich government, with international financial experts receiving half of the votes in the new General Council. Real per capita income rose by an average of six percent per year from 1924 to 1928. The Reich government launched a major investment program in 1926 and the cities initiated job creation measures. For example, the then Lord Mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer, had a four-lane expressway built between Cologne and Bonn between 1929 and 1932, today's Federal Motorway 555 (see also Public Transport Exchange ). In 1927 the Reichsanstalt for job placement and unemployment insurance was founded. There was a wave of concentration in the economy; spectacular corporate mergers in 1925/26 were those of the United Steel Works and IG Farbenindustrie and in 1929 that of the German-Dutch synthetic fiber manufacturer Algemene Kunstzijde Unie (AKU) and that of Deutsche Bank and Disconto-Gesellschaft (DeDi-Bank). In the media sector, Alfred Hugenberg managed to control half of the German press. The United Steelworks participated in the International Steel Cartel , founded in 1926 , with global production quotas being set. It initially comprised large parts of the continental European steel industry and from 1935 also that of the United Kingdom and from 1939 that of the United States. It broke up during the Great Depression, was re-established in 1933 and ended in 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War.

In the global economic crisis that began in 1929 (for Germany see also: Deutsche Bankenkrise ), the number of unemployed rose from up to three million in the winter of 1928/1929 to over six million in 1932/1933 or about 40 percent of all industrial workers. World trade also collapsed as tariffs were raised around the world (e.g. Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act , 1930), making it increasingly difficult to get new foreign credits and repay old ones. The Reichsbank's reserves of gold foreign exchange melted, and in order to avoid falling below the 40 percent limit, which could a. was set in the Dawes Plan, it tightened the requirements for new loans. In 1931, the Reich government introduced foreign exchange restrictions ( Sperrmark , foreign currency offices , New Plan (1934)) and the Reich flight tax . In economic policy, Chancellor Heinrich Brüning pursued a policy of budget balancing (" deflation policy ") by raising direct and indirect taxes and lowering social spending, wages, prices and rents by means of an emergency ordinance . On December 10, 1931, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, a Reich Commissioner for Price Monitoring, was appointed to enforce the state-decreed price reductions.

The reparation claims were reduced over time and, in the course of the global economic crisis, set at the Lausanne Conference in 1932 at a remaining payment of three billion Reichsmarks.

From 1933 the employment figures recovered. The unions were brought into line in the German Labor Front in 1933 and a wage freeze was issued. In 1934 the law on the organization of national labor replaced the works council law, which largely abolished workers' rights. Instead, there were “ Trustees of Labor ” subordinate to the Reich Labor Ministry . 1935 was workbook duty introduced gradually and in 1939 was able to every worker a job be given.

From 1936 onwards, government spending on armaments and spending on becoming self-sufficient in raw and basic materials essential to the war effort rose. To this end, around half of all investments were directed into the sectors preferred by the " four-year plan " (which will soon be four-year plan organization). In addition, a Reich Commissioner for pricing was set up in October 1936 . Companies such as lignite-gasoline AG , Volkswagenwerk Wolfsburg , Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke and Reichswerke Hermann Göring were founded . In the course of the Second World War, the Reichswerk took over foreign companies important to the war effort, such as the Alpine Montangesellschaft , Steyr Daimler Puch and the Škoda-Werke , and in 1940 employed 600,000 people.

Poland decrees , 1940

The war costs were financed only to a small extent by regular state revenues, to a larger extent with the so-called silent war financing and by the occupied countries (see also: Hitler's People's State by Götz Aly). When that was no longer enough, the Deutsche Reichsbank was used as a lender.

Due to increasing labor shortages, between seven and eleven million people from abroad were coerced into forced labor during the Second World War . In the vicinity of concentration camps there were also operating facilities in accordance with the concept of “ destruction through work ”, such as the Ostindustrie GmbH , the German equipment works , the Walther works and the German earth and stone works . In addition to forced labor, voluntary work could also be done while staying in a ghetto , which is compensated by a pension according to the Ghetto Pension Act passed in 2002 . According to calculations by Götz Aly, around 1 billion Reichsmarks are said to have been paid to the German social security system.

With the " Aryanization ", around 100,000 Jewish businesses were expropriated for the benefit of the Nazi state , companies and private individuals. The personal property of the deportees was also collected by the state and, for example, turned into money through auctions (see also: Ordinance on the registration of property of Jews , Jewish property tax , Action 3 ). Furthermore, in the course of the " Aktion Reinhardt ", the systematic murder of all Jews and Roma in occupied Poland, according to the final accounts of January 5, 1944, around 180 million Reichsmarks were looted.

At the end of the two world wars, not only were many millions of people killed or war-damaged, but also millions of homes and numerous factories destroyed or damaged.

reconstruction

Average German unemployment rate up to 1990 only
West Germany, from 1991 all of Germany.

New housing estate for refugees in Cologne, December 1954

Federal Republic of Germany

The rapid reconstruction in West Germany after the destruction of the Second World War is colloquially known as the " economic miracle ". However, the high economic growth did not lead to full employment until the 1960s. The unemployment rate rose sharply in 1948 after the currency reform and a wave of strikes (e.g. the Stuttgart incidents of October 28, 1948) culminated in the bizone in the general strike of November 12, 1948 , the main goal of which was to lift the wage freeze. This took place on November 3, 1948, another state measure was bsw. the consumer bread program. Unemployment peaked at 11% in 1950, then fell to 5.6% in 1955 and was 1.3% in 1960. The situation on the labor market was also made more difficult until the end of the 1950s, as many millions of displaced persons and emigrants were taken into West Germany. After reaching full employment, the need for additional workers was so urgent that so-called guest workers were recruited abroad in large numbers . Since the 1950s, social housing has been heavily promoted, and compulsory quotas were set in 1953 to integrate the roughly one and a half million war invalids into working life.

During the reign of Konrad Adenauer ( Cabinets Adenauer I , II , III , IV and V , from 1949 to 1963) and Ludwig Erhard ( Cabinets Erhard I and II , from 1963 to 1966) the course was set for the successful reconstruction. Important for this were the currency reform of 1948 , the staggered release of many prices in 1948, the introduction of the social market economy by Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard (1949 to 1963), the end of dismantling in 1950, the US's European reconstruction program - the Marshall Plan - and the integration of West Germany into the US-led world economy. This included participation in the European Payments Union in September 1950, accession to GATT 1950/51, membership in the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 and in the European Economic Community in 1957. In 1948 the exchange rate between the US dollar and DM was 0, 3 $ = 1 DM and in 1949 the dollar clause was abolished. With the Luxembourg Agreement of September 1952 and the London Debt Agreement of February 1953, Germany's financial obligations from the prewar period, the reparations resulting from the war and the compensation of the Jewish and other victims of Nazi persecution (see also: Jewish Claims Conference , German reparation policy ) regulated in such a way that the Federal Republic of Germany as the legal successor to the German Reich was not burdened with excessive financial burdens.

On November 14, 1952, the Works Constitution Act (1952 version) came into force, which, in the tradition of the Weimar Works Council Act, regulates extensive information, consultation and co-determination rights of the works council and prescribes “trusting cooperation” between company management and works council. It also contained regulations on corporate co-determination on the supervisory board of corporations outside the coal and steel industry. The Works Constitution Act was fundamentally amended in 1972, and numerous points have been revised and adapted since then.

Important economic policy decisions in the years 1959 to 1965 were the privatization of important federal investments in companies such as Preussag , Volkswagen AG (see also Volkswagen Foundation ) and VEBA . A major change in statutory pension insurance occurred with the pension reform of 1957 , when the funded system was abandoned in favor of the pay-as-you-go system and the dynamic adjustment of the pension amount to the gross wage development was introduced. With the law against restraints of competition and the establishment of the Federal Cartel Office in 1958, the principle of freedom of competition ( de-cartelization ) was permanently anchored. In 1963, the Council of Experts was appointed to assess macroeconomic developments in order to provide the federal government and the public with an annual independent scientific analysis and forecasts for the future.

In March 1961, the German mark appreciated for the first time by five percent. The fixed exchange rates came under renewed pressure in 1968/69. On November 20, 1968, most of the European foreign exchange exchanges were closed for three days and the G10 met in Bonn for negotiations. The Deutsche Bundesbank stopped buying US dollars to support the fixed exchange rates on September 30th. On October 27, 1969, after a revaluation of 9.3%, the Deutsche Mark was again pegged to the US dollar at the rate of DM 3.66 per US dollar. During this time wage increases rose from the previously usual 8% per year to 14% in the first quarter of 1970, a wage-price spiral had emerged. In return, the Bundesbank increased interest rates, which only led to borrowing abroad. On May 9, the Bundesbank lifted the fixed rate against the US dollar. On August 15, 1971, the convertibility of the US dollar to gold was abolished and the gold standard ended (see also  German gold reserves ). The G10 decided on December 18, 1971 in Washington ( Smithsonian Agreement ) to reset the exchange rates to the US dollar and to gold and a new fluctuation range of the currencies to the US dollar of ± 2.25%. A number of foreign exchange restrictions , such as the Cash Depot Act which came into force in 1972 , were introduced in Germany. On April 24, 1972, some European countries, including Germany, decided to set up the European Exchange Rate Union in order to fix the fluctuation range of their currencies against each other at ± 2.25%. The agreement turned into a purely European exchange rate association after the exchange rate to the US dollar was allowed to form completely freely from March 1973 (collapse of Bretton Woods ). In 1979 the European Monetary System emerged from this .

The Bundesbank went internally from 1973 to money supply control and from 1975 it set a money supply target .

German Democratic Republic

From 1945 to 1949 there was a land reform in the Soviet occupation zone , whereby the owners were mostly expropriated without compensation, the same happened to large companies, wholesalers and banks. About 200 Soviet joint-stock companies were created . The remaining private companies were converted from 1950 into state- owned companies (VEB) and companies with state participation (BSB), which were then also socialized in 1972. From 1952 to 1960 almost all of the agricultural land was converted into nationally owned goods (VEG) or agricultural production cooperatives (LPG). There were also socialist cooperatives, for example, in the handicrafts ( PGH ), with inland fishermen ( PGB ), in gardening shops ( GPG ), in construction ( AWG ) and in sea and coastal fishermen ( FPG ).

German mark of the GDR from 1948

Since June 23, 1948, the Deutsche Mark has had its own currency. Until then, in addition to the Rentenmark and Reichsmark, a mark of the Allied Military Authority , also known as the "Occupation Mark ", was introduced as legal tender by the Soviet military administration . A currency with the same denomination was also issued by all allies since August 9, 1945 in Berlin as legal tender. A currency reform was associated with the new currency, which was followed by another on October 13, 1957.

In September 1950, the GDR was incorporated into the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (Comecon), which was founded in 1949 and led by the Soviet Union . The organization was created to enable the Eastern European member states to gain economic independence from the West. Towards the end of the 1950s, the RGW began to be organizationally developed and the first international economic plans were drawn up. The most important undertaking of Comecon at that time was the friendship oil pipeline, which was built between 1959 and 1964, over 5000 kilometers long .

An increase in labor standards by ten percent was intended to counter economic difficulties, but this led to the popular uprising of June 17, 1953 . Since the 1950s there was the so-called interzonal trade , later called "intra-German trade", which was carried out between the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR in the form of an exchange trade. By August 13, 1961, when the construction of the Berlin Wall began and the fortifications on the inner German border began to be strengthened , many millions of East Germans fled to West Germany.

See also : German Democratic Republic - Economy

Bipolar world

Federal Republic of Germany

Economic growth in Germany from 1980 to 2018

With the end of the Bretton Woods system in 1973 and the oil crisis in the same year, the period of consistently high economic growth, national debt of around 20 percent and full employment with an unemployment rate of less than two percent ended in West Germany .

The automotive industry and information technology developed into new key industrial industries, which is why the public sector made large investments in infrastructure. For example, the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan, first drawn up in 1973, has invested large sums in highway construction. In the 1990s, the wired telephone network was digitized by Deutsche Telekom and several mobile network operators, including a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, set up mobile networks for large numbers of subscribers (see also: History of the telephone network , auction of UMTS licenses in Germany ). However, from 1996 onwards, the Federal Republic of Germany sold almost all of its stake in Deutsche Telekom's " T-shares ".

Sectors that were previously important, such as the railways, heavy industry (see also the steel crisis ) and mining, lost their importance. Since the 1960s, the German energy industry changed , there was more imported coal and households and businesses were lost to the coal industry. As a result, the Ruhr mining industry , for example, had to reduce funding. The Rationalisierungsverband Ruhrbergbau founded in 1963 accompanied the closure of many large mines. Further steps were the smelter contract of 1968, the centenary contract of 1975 and the formation of Ruhrkohle AG .

Although the textile and clothing industry was an economic sector protected by import quotas until the 1990s , labor-intensive production steps were increasingly relocated to low-wage countries . Even in domestic German trade, textiles and clothing were important GDR products at 16.04% in 1987. The structural change in the Federal Republic intensified further when the trade barriers were gradually lifted with the 1994 World Textile Agreement . For the West German industry, this meant that it invested in new products, such as technical textiles , and traditional locations such as the Augsburg textile district , the fur trading center in Frankfurt am Main or the shoe industry in Pirmasens , lost employment. While 1.27 million people - predominantly women - were employed in the textile and clothing industry in West Germany at the beginning of the 1960s , the number in Germany fell to 230,000 in 2000. Between 1975 and 1981, more than half were in the shoe industry of all jobs lost. The leather union and the textile-clothing union are merging with other unions. Well-known German companies in the industry are Hugo Boss , Adidas , Puma , Brennet AG , Gütermann and other companies .

The service sector expanded so that Germany can be described as a service society. Particularly successful sectors are insurers , banks and company- related service providers, but also the leisure and entertainment industries. The industrialization of services is gaining in importance. Analogous to the Taylorization in industry, services are now also divided into individual work steps and these can be processed either internally or externally , highly productively. For example, making calls in call centers , sorting letters, e.g. B. in letter centers of the Deutsche Post AG or some work steps from the area of financial services in the so-called "bank factory". Self- service is important in the consumer-related service sector . So sat in retail the supermarket by cash is with ATMs lifted at the bank and fast food restaurants , the customer brings his food, mostly fast food , even at the table. These changes in the structure of the economy can even turn previous customers into economic competitors. Examples of this are home improvement in the handicrafts (the first hardware store opened around 1960) or, since the 1990s, the creation of user-generated content in the information industry .

The consumption expenditure of private households rose between 1970 and 1990 from 191.29 billion EUR to 703.20 billion EUR. In addition to household income, the amount of leisure time also increased: the 5-day week was gradually introduced in 1955/56, the 40-hour week in 1965 and the 38.5-hour week in 1984. Since the mid-1990s, the Weekly working hours in many industries again.

In the reigns with SPD involvement ( Cabinet Kiesinger , cabinets Brandt I and II , cabinets Schmidt I , II and III , 1966-1982) investments were welcome by the state to companies, since one economic problems together with employers and trade unions actively address wanted to. In the grand coalition from 1966 to 1969, the “ concerted action ” was organized by Minister Karl Schiller to overcome the economic crisis of those years, and with the Stability and Growth Act of 1967, the national objective of macroeconomic equilibrium was concretized. In the following reign of Helmut Kohl ( Cabinets Kohl I , II , III , IV and V , from 1982 to 1998), the property held by the federal government was sold to many major German companies, such as VEBA , VIAG , Volkswagen AG , Schenker AG , Salzgitter AG , Saarbergwerke , IVG Immobilien , Deutsche Telekom , Deutsche Bundespost . The public property that was taken over by the Treuhandanstalt after reunification was also privatized by 1994. In contrast, the corporate ownership held by the federal states remained largely state-owned. In the German banking system , for example , the “three-pillar model” - private commercial banks , public credit institutions and cooperative banks - did not change anything.

The “ four fundamental freedoms ” propagated under the catchphrase “ European internal market ” have been increasingly realized in the European Community over decades through legal harmonization.

German Democratic Republic

Natural resources and industrial locations in the GDR, as of August 1990

From 1962 there was the retail chain Intershop in the GDR with the aim of generating “ Westgeld ”. The “ New Economic System of Planning and Management ” was introduced in 1963 under Walter Ulbricht and was in effect until 1967. It provided performance bonuses for workers and greater flexibility in companies. In 1965 the concept began to be changed somewhat, state planning became more important again and the National Economic Council (1961–1965) was dissolved in favor of several industrial ministries. The economic system of socialism and the concept of structure-determining tasks were valid from 1967 to 1971. On the one hand, the reforms were pursued further, but on the other hand, the electrical industry and machine tool construction began to be particularly promoted. In June 1971 , after replacing Ulbricht , Erich Honecker announced improvements for the population at the 8th Party Congress , such as increasing consumer goods production or a housing program (called the unity of economic and social policy ). These measures could only partly be financed by the progress made by the GDR economy, so that the GDR increasingly borrowed from the Federal Republic. This also became necessary because western production facilities for export and consumer goods were bought and could not always be paid for through offsetting transactions. Attempts were made to counteract this increasing dependency. Since the mid-1970s, for example, exports in exchange for foreign currency were increased, the commercial coordination department established in 1966 in the Ministry of Foreign Trade was expanded, the minimum exchange rate for West German visitors increased in 1973 , a flat-rate transit fee for traffic between West Germany and West Berlin was agreed and the release of prisoners was promoted. The focus on certain industries continued into the 1970s, so that modern machinery was present in those industries while others tended to be absent. In the second half of the 1970s, as a result of the oil crisis , the Soviet Union increased the price of oil for its Eastern European customers, and in 1979/1980 it even reduced the amount of crude oil supplied to the GDR from 19.3 million tons to 17.3 million tons. The GDR reacted to this by preferring to export petrochemical products, especially petrol and diesel, to the West, and by increasingly using lignite and nuclear power itself. This so-called "heating oil transfer" led to an increase in foreign exchange income and a reduction in debt in the West, but from the mid-1980s the oil price fell again.

The Comecon was institutionally expanded and the national economic plans of the member countries were partially coordinated ( socialist economic integration ). The member states strove to specialize in some economic areas. The GDR's nuclear power plants in Rheinsberg , Greifswald and Stendal were given Soviet reactors. The GDR also received large amounts of oil and natural gas from the Soviet Union. In 1974 the delivery of gas and crude oil in return for construction work on a natural gas pipeline was agreed, and the GDR was responsible for building a 550-kilometer construction section in the Ukraine, the Druzhba route . Even in later years, gas and oil deliveries were always paid for by the countries where the raw materials were purchased, in part through the construction of pipelines. The GDR itself mainly exported industrial, consumer and electronic goods, for example ships from the VEB Kombinat Schiffbau or data processing and office machines from the VEB Kombinat Robotron . (see also other combines )

From the 1960s onwards, the GDR recruited contract workers for jobs such as light industry or the consumer goods industry for a limited period and without any intention of integration . In 1981 there were about 24,000 contract workers and by the end of 1989 there were about 94,000 contract workers, two-thirds of whom were of Vietnamese origin.

The GDR's foreign trade was about 70% with socialist countries, about 25% with western industrialized countries and about 5% with developing countries. In trade with the socialist countries, about 40% fell on trade with the Soviet Union and about 25% on the other Comecon countries.

See also : List of newspapers and magazines in the GDR  and List of brand names and products in the GDR

reunion

After German reunification , the monetary, economic and social union came into force on July 1, 1990. The state- owned companies were handed over to the Treuhandanstalt with the aim of privatizing or closing them. On December 31, 1994, the Treuhandanstalt was dissolved, the remaining tasks were distributed among several successor companies and the debts incurred were transferred to the Inheritance Repayment Fund .

The German Unity Fund and Solidarity Pacts  I and II were agreed for the eastern German federal states to finance the so-called “ Aufbau Ost ” . The federal government financed itself in part through the solidarity surcharge . In addition, the federal budget's new indebtedness was greatly increased and the social security system was burdened by sharply rising costs due to the roughly twice as high unemployment in the east.

The infrastructure in the " new federal states " was improved after reunification, from which the East German construction industry benefited until the mid-1990s. Productivity per employee rose, but unit labor costs were for a long time considerably higher than in western Germany. At the same time, the process of harmonization between East and West lasted longer than originally assumed (see also Blooming Landscapes ), which is why the high unemployment figures and the emigration of the population continued for years to come.

The Federal Government has been publishing an annual Federal Government report on the state of German unity since 1997 .

Globalization and global crises

→ Main articles : Global Financial Crisis , Global Financial Crisis / Regional Course  and Euro Crisis

Development of gross and real wages in Germany

Globalization has been the subject of controversial discussion since international companies have increasingly seen relocations away from Germany . It will be discussed to what extent Germany benefits with its export-oriented economy or whether jobs will be cut through outsourcing and which groups may or may not benefit. The long-term inadequate political response to globalization is reflected in the rising unemployment rate , which peaked in 2005 at 13 percent for Germany as a whole and 20.6 percent for the new federal states including Berlin.

One economic policy measure was the creation of the European Economic and Monetary Union in 1999. With the euro zone , i.e. the monetary union of the member states of the European Union , for example, the exchange rate uncertainty in large parts of Europe disappeared .

One reaction to the difficult situation on the labor market was that the number of self-employed rose, for example between 1991 and 1998 by 18.3%. In this context, the concept of the new independence arose.

Politicians wanted to promote and expand the low-wage sector so that low-skilled workers in Germany could successfully compete for jobs with comparable workers in emerging countries . Various combination wage models and minimum wage models were discussed, tested in model projects and implemented. Trade unions and employers have been adding opening clauses to collective agreements since 2004 and with Agenda 2010 and the Hartz concept , the social system and the labor market were significantly changed by the Schröder II cabinet between 2003 and 2005 . New terms such as " Ich-AG " and " Aufstocker " were also created. The former are companies founded by the unemployed that are subsidized by the state, and the latter are people with an income below basic security who receive unemployment benefit II from the state . Furthermore, between 2000 and 2004, around 20,000 IT experts from outside the EU were lured to Germany with the green card , as the euphoria surrounding the new economy and the explosive growth of the Nemax stock exchange segment between 1997 and 2000 ( dotcom bubble ) had shown a need for these professionals. In 2009, the EU passed a directive that would allow highly qualified third-country nationals to stay in the EU. Germany implemented the regulation for the EU Blue Card in August 2012. In the first six months, 4126 people received a residence permit for Germany. In 2015, the general minimum wage of EUR 8.50 gross per hour was introduced. A permanent minimum wage commission, consisting of academic members and representatives of the employees and employers, will determine adjustments. On the other hand, there was the desire of German companies to employ many well-trained workers at costs below the German wage level, which is why close supply relationships with the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia were established. For example, an important location for the production of car engines for Audi was established in Győr (Hungary) in 1994 . This subsidiary was Hungary's second largest exporter in 2008. The situation is similar in the Czech Republic , where Škoda Auto , a VW subsidiary, was the country's largest exporter in 2006. In Greer, South Carolina, USA, the BMW US Manufacturing Company produces vehicles of which 70–80% are exported, making it the largest exporter of cars in the USA. In 2010, direct investments by German companies in China reached a cumulative level of almost 18 billion US dollars.

(Source: Eurostat )

The unemployment rate fell to 8.1% in December 2007 and 7.1% in November 2008. Since 2008, according to the Posted Workers Act, negotiations between trade unions and employers' associations have been increasingly negotiating different minimum wages for individual branches of the economy.

In 2007, the predominantly West German WASG and the predominantly East German PDS became a successful all-German party of the political left: Die Linke . With this shift in the German party system, the political consensus to pursue a market-liberal economic policy broke .

Since the beginning of the 2000s, the world of business and work has been experiencing a " digital revolution " worldwide , which is largely originating in the United States and China. New IT products are being developed, such as legal tech in legal advice and fin tech in the financial industry. In Germany, the term " Industry 4.0 " was invented to describe the digitization of industrial production. For example, Siemens has been offering MindSphere since 2017 , Robert Bosch GmbH the Bosch IoT Suite and Software AG and several machine and plant manufacturers Adamos since 2017 . With these industrial IoT platforms , sensor data from machines and industrial systems can be shared with customers and suppliers or used for any purpose (e.g. predictive maintenance) using your own or rented software. Important innovations for the automotive industry are IT services in the car, based on so-called "car IT". Examples of this are Android Auto from Google and CarPlay from Apple, both of which connect the smartphone to the infotainment system of the car, as well as the new car operating systems Android Automotive from Google and vw.OS from Volkswagen with the Group's own app store . Both will be used for the first time in the VW ID.3 model . There are also German platforms active in the end customer business, e.g. B. Delivery Hero (Essen), Zalando (shoes and fashion) and Otto Group (fashion and lifestyle), and in the business with business customers platforms such as AUTO1 Group (used cars) and Wucato (craft and industrial supplies). With the emergence of these platforms since 2009, the term “ gig economy ” came into being. What is meant by this is the work mediated by platforms on contractors who are mostly not employed there.

Germany was the “ export world champion ” for several years , most recently in 2008 with 1.47 trillion US dollars ( China at that time: 1.43 trillion dollars).

The external financing of companies in Germany traditionally takes place via a house bank , but the importance of the international capital market is increasing, for example through the issue of shares or corporate bonds to institutional investors . In politics, for example, this process sparked the grasshopper debate in April and May 2005. However, the measures on the part of Gerhard Schröder's government (1998 to 2005) to dismantle capital links between German companies were preceded by such measures as the tax-free sale of company shares decided by the Schröder I cabinet in the 2000 tax reform . A key event was the purchase of Mannesmann AG through a spectacular hostile takeover in early 2000, followed by the sale of parts of the company and the Mannesmann trial from 2004 to 2006.

Interest rates on German long-term bonds. The low interest rate favors the consolidation of public finances

The global financial crisis (see also: chronological sequence ) led to the disclosure of the poor financial situation of some German banks, in particular some Landesbanken , IKB Deutsche Industriebank and Hypo Real Estate , and prompted the Federal Government, in the person of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück (both had been in office since 2005), in October 2008 on the political declaration of intent to guarantee savings in all German banks. A few days later, the Merkel I cabinet decided to found the Financial Market Stabilization Fund (SoFFin). The Federal Cabinet passed a " package of measures " on November 5, 2008 and the " economic stimulus package II " on January 14, 2009 . In the 2005/09 and 2009/13 electoral periods , the federal government decided to make further changes to the law to promote the economy, but the gross domestic product developed negatively in 2009 at -5.1%. In parallel with the growth packages, Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück introduced the so-called “ debt brake ” at the beginning of 2009 . In the course of the financial crisis, SoFFin took over a stake in Commerzbank , and Hypo Real Estate was nationalized, which is why a parliamentary committee of inquiry was set up. The crisis had such an impact on the labor market that in May 2009 the use of short-time work for over 1½ million employees reached its peak. The increased flexibility of working hours in previous years , for example through concepts such as working time accounts , also proved to be important . As a result, the number of unemployed increased only slightly in the course of the financial crisis, whereas the working hours per employee fell by around 5 percent from the beginning of 2008 to the end of 2009. In 2010 the upswing on the labor market began again, so that in October 2010 the number of registered unemployed fell to less than three million or 7.0 percent. Some reasons for this are that, since the introduction of unemployment benefit II in 2005, many have been willing to take a lower-paid job or work for a temporary employment agency . In August 2010, 754,700 people were employed by temporary employment agencies, compared to 453,400 people in June 2005.

The Greek sovereign debt crisis began in 2009/10, and in spring 2010 it escalated into the euro crisis . This was expressed, among other things, in the fact that, under pressure from the German government ( Merkel II cabinet ), among other things, a " euro rescue package " was set up and that the relatively uniform interest rates for EU government bonds in the markets up to 2013 diverged considerably. Since German government bonds are considered to be very safe, the interest to be paid could be greatly reduced; At times, investors were ready to accept negative nominal interest rates for some short-term bonds . Negative real interest rates (market interest rate is below the inflation rate) have become the new normal for German government bonds for almost all maturities, with the yield on ten-year Bunds being below 1.0% for the first time in August 2014 (with an inflation rate of 0.8% in July 2014) . The market situation is similar for solid German corporate bonds. When the ECB started a quantitative easing program on March 9, 2015 , the inflation rate (due to the drop in oil prices ) and the yield on German government bonds had become negative for many maturities. In August 2019, when the inflation rate was positive again (1.7% in July 2019), even 30-year Bunds turned negative, 10-year Bunds yielded −0.495%. Large investors pay interest to the bank, which is why some large investors move their capital abroad.

The so-called European Semester was introduced in 2011 to coordinate the economic policy of the EU countries, which enables the European Commission to review national budget and reform drafts before they are adopted by the national parliaments. Another consequence of the crisis was a strong influx of mostly well-educated southern and southeastern Europeans into the booming regions of Germany and a real estate boom in some large and medium-sized cities. The Committee for Financial Stability , founded in 2013, reported, among other things, that in 2013 residential property prices rose by 9.0% in seven major cities and by 6.3% in 125 German cities.

The Merkel III cabinet passed the minimum wage law drawn up by Federal Labor Minister Andrea Nahles (SPD), which will apply from January 1, 2015 . In order to dampen the rise in prices on the housing market, the ordering principle for real estate agents and the “rent brake” were introduced. Federal Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) managed to achieve a balanced federal budget ("black zero") from 2014 to 2017. His successor in the Merkel IV cabinet , Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD), also succeeded in 2018, but the economic slump that became apparent at the end of 2018 could end the continuation. Nevertheless, it is expected that Germany's debt ratio will fall to less than 60% of GDP ( Maastricht criteria ) at the end of 2018 / beginning of 2019 .

After the nuclear phase-out on June 14, 2000 ( Schröder I cabinet ), which was first "slowed down" by the Merkel II cabinet in 2010 and "accelerated" again after the Fukushima nuclear disaster on March 14, 2011, the Merkel III cabinet decided on June 16 In 2017, the fund for the financing of nuclear waste disposal in the amount of 24.1 billion euros. The money will be raised by the four German nuclear power plant operators.

The refugee crisis in Germany and Europe determined the entire German public from summer 2015. The refugees' countries of origin are the Western Balkans and the civil war countries Syria (see also: civil war in Syria ), Iraq and Afghanistan as well as other countries. In 2016 the federal government and the federal states introduced easier access to the German labor market for jobseekers from the Western Balkans (limited until the end of 2020). Employment without qualification requirements is now easier with a binding job offer. In 2018, for example, around 21,000 work visas were applied for.

Other major topics are the structural change in the Chinese economy, an increasingly important trading partner for Germany, the United Kingdom's exit from the EU and the global VW emissions scandal . In addition to various fines, VW agreed to set up a national charging station network for electric cars in the USA ( Electrify America ) for 2 billion US dollars.

After the takeover of Kuka AG , the attempted takeover of Aixtron and similar processes by Chinese companies, the federal government tightened the foreign trade ordinance in the summer of 2017 so that the BMWi was given more rights in the case of such company acquisitions by non-EU investors. The focus of the change in the law is on companies that deal with critical infrastructures .

Since the beginning of 2018, US President Donald Trump has been conducting a series of economic policy disputes with several governments (e.g. Canada, Mexico, EU, Japan, South Korea, PR China). In order to introduce import tariffs or to increase existing ones, a US president can raise tariffs by declaring a “national emergency” without calling in the US Congress . On March 8, 2018, import duties were already levied on economic goods for 186 of 328 product categories from the steel, steel products and aluminum sectors worldwide, whereupon the EU imposed countermeasures. It has also been announced, should the negotiations between the EU and the USA not be successful, to raise import tariffs on cars and auto parts from the EU, with the aim of reducing the trade deficit of the USA with the EU and in particular with Germany. The trade conflict with China , on the other hand, has already escalated, which is affecting exports worldwide, including German corporations.

Shopping during the Covid-19 pandemic: Only one customer per 20 m² is allowed in the store and a distance of at least 1.5 meters should be maintained. From April 15, it is also mandatory to wear everyday masks when shopping. Photo taken on March 21, 2020.

At the end of 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic began in China : It reached Germany on January 27, 2020. Measures against the pandemic in Germany were, for example, exit restrictions , temporary business closings , the extensive cessation of tourism and air traffic, and the cancellation of all major events . These and comparable measures in other countries led to the economic crisis in Germany . The Merkel IV cabinet decided on economic policy measures, such as immediately payable financial aid for micro-enterprises, self-employed persons and freelancers in the amount of 40 billion euros, a national rescue fund with a volume of 600 billion euros for medium-sized and larger companies and commercial and private tenants must not be terminated if they don't pay the rent, it has to be paid later. There are similar regulations for contracts relating to energy, water and communication. In March and up to April 26, 2020, short-time working benefits were applied for for up to 10.1 million people , for around 45 million people in employment. According to the Ifo Institute , 7.3 million employees were on short-time work in May, 2.4 million of them in business-related services, 2.2 million in industry and 1.3 million in retail. On June 3, the coalition committee passed a 130 billion euro stimulus package for 2020 and 2021. As a result of the aid packages, German national debt is expected to increase from 59.8% to 75% by the end of 2020. The European Central Bank decided on the PEPP aid program worth 1.35 trillion euros and the EU has, among other things, planned a reconstruction fund of 750 billion euros.

In June 2020, the insolvency of Wirecard , a DAX company in the payment services sector, received media and political attention. The role of the BaFin , the auditing company and the supervisory board and why they did not succeed in uncovering or even preventing the criminal activities of the executive board over the years was discussed.

See also

Portal: Economy  - Overview of Wikipedia content on the topic of economy

• German currency history
• Economy in North Rhine-Westphalia , economy in Berlin , economy in Bremen

literature

• Stefan Empter; Robert B. Vehrkamp: Business Location Germany , VS Verlag , Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 978-3-531-14754-3 . (to | writings. between economy, culture and politics)
• Stefan Müller; Martin Kornmeier: International Competitiveness: Irrungen und Verrungen der location discussion , Munich 2000, ISBN 3-8006-2570-9 .

Web links

• Federal Statistical Office (Destatis): National accounts
• OECD Fact Book; Economic and social data of Germany in an international comparison; Tables and Graphics (English)
• The current joint forecast
• Despite Corporate Scandals and Car Trouble, Germany's Economy Is Steaming Ahead Knowledge @ Wharton , (English)
• Ulrich Pfister: German economy since 1850

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} IMF - World Economic Outlook Database, April 2011. Retrieved April 15, 2011
2. ↑ Federal Statistical Office - Gross Domestic Product accessed on January 24, 2018
3. ↑ statista: Share of economic sectors in gross value added in 2019. Accessed on June 4, 2020 . 
4. ↑ DESTATIS - German economy is also growing strongly in 2017.Retrieved January 29, 2018
5. ↑ [1]
6. ↑ ^{a b} Monthly Report December 2017. Federal Employment Agency , January 3, 2018, accessed on January 25, 2018 . 
7. ↑ ^{a b} DESTATIS: Employed persons in Germany by economic sector. Retrieved June 4, 2020 .  
8. ↑ Employment rate in a country comparison. Federal Statistical Office , October 10, 2016, accessed on December 4, 2016 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Foreign trade: final annual results (Fachserie 7, Reihe 1). Federal Statistical Office , accessed on December 29, 2017 . 
10. ↑ [2]
11. ↑ Eurostat - Government Revenue.Retrieved April 16, 2011
12. ↑ Eurostat - total expenditure. Accessed April 16, 2011
13. ↑ destatis.de: Financial balance of the state of Germany, gross domestic product 2013 for Germany - accompanying material for the press conference on January 15, 2014, table 3, page 21
14. ↑ International trade in services: German SMEs are also active. KfW Research 212, June 21, 2018 (online as PDF )
15. ↑ Country / Economy Profiles . In: Global Competitiveness Index 2017-2018 . ( weforum.org [accessed November 21, 2017]).
16. ↑ Country Rankings: World & Global Economy Rankings on Economic Freedom. Retrieved December 4, 2017 . 
17. ↑ Overview on page 29 of the background paper: Renewable Energy Agency: Germany as a business location. Berlin 2014
18. ↑ tagesschau: Energy mix and power generation in Germany , 2005 ( Memento from August 31, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
19. ↑ Federal Statistical Office: Statistical Yearbook 2019 - Germany and Internationales 2019, p. 336. online (PDF), accessed on December 9, 2019
20. ↑ ^{a b} Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture: Data and Facts - Agriculture, Forestry and Food Industry with Fisheries and Viticulture and Horticulture , page 5, December 2017, online (PDF), accessed on December 9, 2019
21. ↑ Energy consumption in Germany in 2014 . Internet site of the AG Energiebilanzen. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
22. ↑ Working Group on Energy Balances 2006 , accessed on September 23, 2010.
23. ↑ Electricity generation in the 2nd quarter of 2019: almost half of the electricity fed into the grid from Destatis renewable energies . Retrieved November 4, 2019.
24. ↑ Federal Statistical Office: Data Report 2004, Chapter "Manufacturing Industry"
25. ↑ Langenscheidt, Florian (ed.); Venohr, Bernd (Hrsg.): Lexicon of German world market leaders: The premier class of German companies in words and pictures. Offenbach (Main): GABAL, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86936-221-2 .
26. ↑ OECD (2008), Growing Unequal? - Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries: Country Note Germany (in German): Deutschland (PDF; 257 kB); DIW: The income differences have increased sharply since the turn of the millennium - both in absolute numbers and in relative proportions. (PDF; 469 kB) p. 5.
27. ↑ ^{a b} Joachim Merz : High and low income, new results on the liberal and other professions with the microdata of income tax statistics , 2006, p. 9
28. ↑ DIW Berlin weekly report No. 24/2010: Polarization of incomes: The middle class is losing (PDF; 469 kB), p. 5 (average of all disposable incomes per person, which is no more than 30% down and less than 50% down above from the average disposable income of all persons living in private households in Germany, p. 3 and box 1, p. 4).
29. ↑ DIW Berlin weekly report No. 7/2010: Still high risk of poverty in Germany: Children and young adults are particularly affected (PDF; 431 kB), p. 4.
30. ↑ Richard Hauser : The development of income and wealth distribution in Germany, an overview of information on spatial development, issue 2 / 4.2003, p. 120
31. ^ German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Joachim R. Frick, Markus M. Grabka: DIW Berlin weekly report No. 4/2009: Increased wealth inequality in Germany (PDF; 276 kB), p. 59.
32. ↑ ^{a b} Joachim R. Frick, Markus M. Grabka: Old-age pension assets curb inequality - but large asset concentration remains (PDF) In: DIW Berlin weekly report No. 3/2010 . DIW Berlin. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
33. ↑ Prognos: Prognos Future Atlas 2013: Summary of results, overall ranking. (PDF) March 28, 2014, accessed May 4, 2015 . 
34. ↑ Stat. State Office Baden-Württemberg ( Memento from October 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
35. ↑ On the financial crisis, Tagesschau: The export world champion feels the crisis , October 9, 2008 ( Memento from October 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
36. ↑ Financial Times Deutschland, David Milleker: The deficits of the one are the surpluses of the other. January 21, 2009 ( Memento from January 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
37. ↑ German export surplus in 2017: 244.7 billion euros. In: press release. Federal Statistical Office, February 27, 2017, accessed on February 27, 2017 . 
38. ↑ ^{a b c} Federal Statistical Office (Destatis): Foreign trade: exports and imports according to goods departments. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
39. ↑ Federal Statistical Office (Destatis): GENESIS-Online database: Exports and imports by year and country. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
40. ↑ Federal Statistical Office (Destatis): Ranking of trading partners in foreign trade in the Federal Republic of Germany. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
41. ↑ Top-500 - cio.de. Retrieved August 24, 2018 . 
42. ↑ The 1,000 largest family businesses in 2016. In: Die Deutsche Wirtschaft. Retrieved August 16, 2016 . 
43. ^ Report for Selected Countries and Subjects. Retrieved August 24, 2018 (American English). 
44. ↑ Study: Two out of three companies are socially committed. In: WirtschaftsWoche. May 15, 2018, accessed July 22, 2019 . 
45. ↑ Anaël Labigne, Patrick Gilroy, Olga Kononykhina, Detlef Hollmann, Birgit Riess: The social investments of the German economy . Edition Stifterverband, Essen 2018, ISBN 978-3-922275-82-4 ( bertelsmann-stiftung.de [PDF; accessed on July 22, 2019]).
46. ^ Fritz Blaich: The beginnings of German anti-cartel policy between 1897 and 1914
47. ↑ ^{a b} Jochen Oltmer , Federal Agency for Civic Education: Refugee and Forced Migration in the Interwar Period , from March 15, 2005, accessed on April 29, 2019
48. ^ Federal Archives: Draft of a law for the accelerated collection of the Reichsnotopfer
49. ↑ Deutsche Bank 1870–1995, C. H. Beck Verlag, p. 361
50. ↑ bundesarchiv.de: Ministerial meeting on November 30, 1931, 4:30 p.m.
51. ^ Jürgen Zarusky: Ghetto pensions: compensation policy, jurisprudence and historical research , p. 18, ISBN 978-3-486-58941-2 ( preview in the Google book search)
52. ↑ merkur-online.de: Does Germany have to pay billions now? Nazi victims fight for their ghetto pensions. March 5, 2010
53. ^ Taz.de: Looting of Jewish Property: How Germans Exploited Their Jewish Citizens
54. ↑ zeno.org: The Nuremberg Trial, Monday, August 5, 1946, morning session
55. ↑ Federal Statistical Office Germany: Unemployed, unemployment rate of all dependent civilian labor force by area (from 1950)
56. ^ Jörg Roesler: Dialogue, Monologue and Welfare State. Realizing the self-interest of the ruling elites and the interests of the people in Germany over the past 60 years , pages 52–55, April 20, 2006 (PDF; 93 kB)
57. ↑ destatis.de: Registered unemployed, unemployment rate in the former federal territory excluding Berlin and Saarland ( Memento from April 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
58. ↑ Keyword Wirtschaftswunder in Duden - economy from A to Z. Basic knowledge for school and study, work and everyday life. 2nd edition Mannheim: Bibliographisches Institut & FA Brockhaus 2004. Licensed edition Bonn: Federal Agency for Civic Education 2004.
59. ↑ ^{a b} Peter Erdmeier: Privatization of shareholdings of Berlin since reunification, Chapter 3: Privatization in Germany
60. ↑ Bank for International Settlements, Annual Reports from 1931 to 1996 Reports from 1967 to 1973 form the background to this paragraph
61. ↑ Helmut Kahnt, Martin Pontzen: The history of the German mark
62. ^ Peter Gey: The economic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic 1949–1989 ( Memento from January 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
63. ↑ Jürgen Stehn, Holger Schmieding: Patterns of specialization and competitiveness - an inventory of GDR foreign trade (PDF; 788 kB)
64. ↑ Institute of the German Economy Cologne, Textile and Clothing Industry - No victim of globalization  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
65. ↑ IGBC: History of the union leather ( Memento of 23 November 2010 at the Internet Archive )
66. ↑ destatis.de: Domestic consumer spending by intended use in Germany ( Memento of April 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
67. ↑ fr-online.de: Timo Kotowski: A company called the state
68. ↑ Peter Kny: Multi-sided scientific and technical international cooperation in the field of computing technology in the Robotron combine (PDF; 4.6 MB)
69. ^ German Historical Institute: German history in documents and images, regional structure of GDR foreign trade
70. ^ Deutsche Bundesbank: Balance of payments of the former GDR 1975 to 1989 ( Memento from July 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
71. ↑ Leuphana University of Lüneburg: Joachim Merz and Peter Paic: Business start-ups by freelancers and entrepreneurs - a microanalysis with the socio-economic panel
72. ↑ 4126 Blue Cards for highly qualified immigrants , Wirtschaftswoche.de, February 16, 2012
73. ↑ International Monetary Fund, Selim Elekdag and Dirk Muir: Trade Linkages, Balance Sheets, and Spillovers - The Germany-Central European Supply Chain, October 2013
74. ↑ German carmaker finds cheap labor platform in America , wsws.org, 19. September 2011
75. ↑ Compact economic data , German Embassy Beijing, as of July 15, 2011
76. ↑ Volkswagen Group News: Volkswagen with new software unit , June 18, 2019
77. ↑ spiegel.de: WTO expects a record slump in world trade
78. ↑ Council of experts: Annual report: 2005/06, Chapter 7: Capital market and financial intermediaries: Corporate finance in transition ( Memento from August 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
79. ↑ Leo Müller : The German Lehman Lie
80. ↑ Merkel and Steinbrück in the wording: "The savings are safe" , spiegel.de, October 5, 2008
81. ↑ Harald Schumann: The banking crime thriller
82. ↑ berufsagentur.de: The development of the labor market in February 2010 ( Memento from September 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
83. ↑ ^{a b} commerzbank.de: German labor market - more flexible than expected (April 2010) ( Memento from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 185 kB)
84. ↑ ^{a b} commerzbank.de: Press release from April 2010: Labor market: The German labor market miracle ( Memento from December 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
85. ^ The job and training market in Germany-August 2010 ( memento from September 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Federal Employment Agency, accessed on December 5, 2016
86. ↑ Statistics from the Federal Employment Agency: Labor Market 2005, page 101 ( Memento from November 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
87. ↑ Now the financial world has finally been turned upside down , welt.de, August 5, 2019
88. ^ Committee on Financial Stability: First Report on Financial Stability in Germany to the German Bundestag, pp. 11/12 and 19-21, June 2014
89. ↑ General Directorate Economy and Finance of the European Commission: Assessment of the 2018 Stability Program for Germany , 23 May 2018
90. ↑ German Bundestag, printed matter 19/8229: Small question from left-wing MPs on the subject of “Work visas from the Western Balkans in 2018” , from March 11, 2019, page 3.
91. ↑ ifo Schnelldienst : Gabriel Felbermayr and Alexander Sandkamp, Trump's import duties on steel and aluminum , from March 22, 2018
92. ↑ BMJV: Protection against dismissal for tenants and important deferrals of payment for consumers and small businesses , accessed on April 1, 2020
93. ^ The labor market in April 2020 - Federal Employment Agency. Accessed April 30, 2020 . 
94. ↑ In May, 7.3 million employees were on short-time work. ifo Institute , June 2, 2020, accessed on June 3, 2020 . 
95. ↑ WELT: Corona crisis: coalition summit agrees on 130 billion euro stimulus package . In: THE WORLD . June 3, 2020 ( welt.de [accessed June 3, 2020]).
96. ↑ n-tv.de: Quota at more than 75 percent - Germany's debts rise dramatically , April 9, 2020