The economic situation in Germany remains tense: In the first half of 2025, corporate insolvencies with 11,900 cases have reached the highest level in ten years. This corresponds to an increase of 9.4 % compared to the same period last year (1st half of 2024: 10,880 cases), according to current figures from Creditreform Economic Research. As early as 2024, the number of company bankruptcies had increased by 28.5 %.
“Despite some hope signals, Germany continues to be in a profound economic and structural crisis. Companies are fighting with weak demand, increasing costs and persistent uncertainty. The financial reserves in particular are waning, loans are sometimes no longer extended and more and more companies are in serious difficulties,” explains Patrik-Ludwig Hantzsch, head of the Creditreform Business Research. In view of the lack of economic recreation, the risk remains high. “The number of bankruptcies will continue to rise by the end of the year,” predicts Hantzsch.
The private bankruptcies also continue to increase: In the first half of 2025, around 37,700 consumer solutions were registered, an increase of 6.6 % compared to the previous year (35,380 cases). “The persistently high bankruptcy reactions are increasingly triggering chain reactions. The number of cases among private individuals has been increasing continuously for three years. The severely increased living costs and job losses, especially in industry, are under massive pressure,” said Hantzsch.
The economic damage to corporate insolvencies is considerable. Creditreform estimates the loss of claims in the first half of 2025 at around 33.4 billion euros. On average, this means a damage amount of around EUR 2.8 million – significantly more than in 2022 and 2023. In addition, the number of jobs affected rose to around 141,000, an increase of 6.0 % compared to the previous year (133,000). Large bankruptcies such as the nursing home operator Argentum Care or the Kodi Discontläden GmbH household goods chain, each with over 2,000 employees, raise these figures.
Medium -sized companies in particular are increasingly under pressure: bankruptcies with 51 to 250 employees increased above average by 16.7 %. Larger companies with sales from 5.0 million euros also record more than twice as many bankruptcies as before the Corona crisis. “This development is also due to the modern possibilities of German bankruptcy law, which is strongly geared towards the renovation of crisis -like companies. Above all, larger companies are increasingly using these options to reorganize itself in the course of bankruptcy,” explains Hantzsch.
The processing industry is particularly affected by industry, where the bankruptcies increased by 17.5 %. In the trade, the increase was 13.8 %, driven by buying buying and hard competition in online trading. In the construction industry, on the other hand, the increase was comparatively low with a plus 1.7 %. The majority of corporate insolvencies still apply to the service sector, which, with almost 7,000 cases, presents around 58.5 % of all bankruptcies.
A special focus of the study is on the automotive supply industry. The bankruptcies continue to rise here – 19 cases in the current year 2025. Since 2020, Creditreform has counted 155 bankruptcies in this segment nationwide. Around 43,000 employees were directly affected in the past five and a half years. “The future competitiveness of the automotive suppliers depends largely on how successfully the transformation process towards electromobility and digitization is mastered. The industry is currently strongly shaped by uncertainty, consolidation and considerable adaptation pressure,” explains Hantzsch.
Despite individual positive signals, the outlook remains: Experts do not expect a significant relaxation of the situation for the coming months – neither for companies nor for consumers.
