In 2025, German courts received the most requests from companies to initiate bankruptcy proceedings since 2014, according to official data from the German statistical institute Destatis.
Last year, companies sent a total of 24,064 requests to initiate bankruptcy to the courts, which is 10.3 percent more than in 2024, the statistical office said, noting that the calculation includes only requests for which the bankruptcy court has already issued the first judgment.
That figure is the highest since 2014, according to Destatis. In December alone, the number of requests increased on an annual basis by 14 percent.
In the entire year 2024, according to the data of the statistical institute, the courts registered a total of 21,812 requests, even 22.4 percent more than in 2023 and the most since 2015.
The most bankruptcies were recorded at the height of the global financial crisis, in 2009, when 32,687 German companies went out of business.
The value of creditors’ claims was reduced, however, in 2025 by as much as 17.6 percent, to 47.9 billion euros, because in 2024 a greater number of “economically significant” companies submitted claims, statisticians explain.
In 2025, 15.6 percent fewer “large bankruptcies” were recorded, that is, those in which the value of claims exceeds 25 million euros, according to Destatis.
The transport and storage sectors, as well as catering and construction, had the biggest solvency problems last year.
Last year, Germany’s economic difficulties led to a higher number of cases of insolvency of citizens – a total of 77,219, which is 8.4 percent more than in 2024.
The situation with bankruptcies could improve this year if the war in Iran ends in the next few weeks and if energy prices fall in the short term, estimates the National Association of German Cooperative Banks.
