“2025 was an extremely weak year for Germany as a business location,” said DIHK chief analyst Volker Treier. “On average, a company in Germany had to file for bankruptcy every 20 minutes.”

The credit analysis company CRIF Germany has evaluated the numbers and draws a bleak conclusion. High energy costs, bureaucratic burdens, geopolitical uncertainty – and consumers holding on to their money because the cost of living is rising. This hits smaller businesses and medium-sized businesses particularly hard.

The Iran war is making the situation worse

What could have been a slight recovery in business sentiment was destroyed by the Iran war. Oil and gas prices rose again. This puts a direct strain on production and procurement in many industries. CRIF Managing Director Frank Schlein puts it in a nutshell: Many of the positive signals from the past few months are losing their impact. This makes investments and long-term planning even more difficult.

CRIF expects a further 24,800 company insolvencies in 2026 – an increase of three percent. At the same time, 322,470 companies are already considered to be at risk of insolvency. This corresponds to 10.3 percent of all companies in Germany, an increase of 1.4 percentage points compared to the previous year.

Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia at the front, Bavaria at the back

Measured by the number of companies, Berlin has the highest density of insolvencies: 117 bankruptcies per 10,000 companies. The national average is 77. North Rhine-Westphalia (103), Hamburg (98), Hesse (88) and Bremen (85) are also significantly higher. Bayern comes in at 56 – well below average.

In absolute terms, NRW reports the most insolvencies with 6,502 cases, followed by Bavaria (3,316) and Baden-Württemberg (2,706).

The increase was particularly sharp in Hesse: plus 27.2 percent compared to 2024. Thuringia follows with 21.7 percent, Saxony-Anhalt with 20.4 percent. Only Saarland is bucking the trend – there the number of bankruptcies fell by 27.9 percent.

Young companies are hit the hardest

Almost 59 percent of insolvent companies are less than ten years old. Companies aged five to six years make up the largest share at 15 percent. Established companies with more than ten years of market presence account for 41 percent of cases – so they are comparatively more stable, but not immune.