Geschäftsaufgabe: In welchen Branchen besonders viele Unternehmen schließen

In Germany, 187,744 companies closed their doors in the past year, a figure that has not been matched in nearly two decades. This increase, by nearly ten percent compared to the previous year, was revealed in a joint analysis by Creditreform and the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim. The previous year's data was recalculated on an expanded basis.

The most recent year to see the highest number of company closures was 2007, with almost 208,000 closures. 2025 saw a second consecutive rise in closures.

The analysis's leader, Patrik-Ludwig Hantzsch, notes that the crisis dynamic is now affecting the entire economy. He adds that even healthy firms are now closing their businesses. In nearly every sector, the number of closures rose within the year. The hospitality industry, however, saw a particularly sharp increase: 15,000 restaurants and lodging businesses closed in 2025, a 15 percent rise from 2024.

Hantzsch explains that the lower VAT rate introduced by the German government to support the hospitality industry may not have alleviated its precarious situation.

In the healthcare sector, the negative trend observed over the past decade continued. The number of closures in this sector was nearly double that of 2008, with 11,000 closures, or roughly double the 2008 figure. Almost 5,500 medical practices closed, which is nearly 23 percent more than in 2024. This often happened because doctors retired and could not find successors.

In the industry, about 11,000 businesses closed, a ten percent increase from the previous year. Hantzsch recently warned of a "crisis situation" affecting the German economy from two sides: geopolitical events like the Iran war and US tariffs, as well as high energy prices and bureaucracy in Germany. However, ZEW researcher Sandra Gottschalk points out that only 13 percent of the nearly 190,000 closures in the past year were due to insolvency proceedings.

Most business closures occurred without much fanfare. Many businesses close due to aging entrepreneurs who cannot find successors, a trend that has become more common in recent years, with one-third of voluntary closures now due to age.