As the German economy teeters on the edge of a recession—and with the population’s trust in democracy and confidence in the state’s ability to act plummeting—government data has revealed not only a significant uptick in bankruptcies but that tens of thousands of businesses shut down in the first six months of this year.
The figures, released by Germany’s Federal Statistical Office last week, revealed that a total of 50,600 companies went out of business between January and the end of June of this year, a 12.4% increase compared to the same period last year, the Hamburg-based daily newspaper Die Zeit reports.
The number of corporate bankruptcies has been continuously rising since August 2022.
In July, for example, the Federal Statistical Office recorded 23.8% more corporate bankruptcies than were registered in the same month last year. Similarly, this June saw 14% more bankruptcies than June of 2022, while the month of May witnessed a 19% uptick compared to the previous year.
News of the uptick in bankruptcies and the number of businesses calling quits comes as two surveys have revealed widespread pessimism in the German population over the state of democracy and the state itself.
One of the surveys, commissioned by the German Association of Civil Servants and conducted by the Forsa Institute for Social Research and Statistical Analysis, revealed that the German people’s trust in the state’s ability to act has fallen to a new low. Of those surveyed, just 27% of respondents said that they believe the state is capable of fulfilling its tasks and duties. Meanwhile, 69% see the state as overwhelmed, up from 40% in 2020.
In East Germany, opinions of the state are especially low. 77% of those questioned in that part of the country believe the state is overwhelmed and unable to adequately fulfill the tasks entrusted to it. At the same time, 68% of those in West Germany feel the same way. Among AfD supporters, a mere 6% believe the state has the capability to fulfill its duties.
Ulrich Silberbach, the chairman of the German Association of Civil Servants, called the survey’s results “terrifying.”
No less unsettling are the results from a second survey, commissioned by the Körber Foundation, which found that 53% of Germans have less faith in German democracy than they had before. Even more noteworthy is the loss of public confidence in Germany’s political parties. Of those surveyed, just 9% said they trusted political parties, down from 29% in 2020.
Sven Tetzlaff, Head of Democracy, Commitment, and Cohesion at the Körber Foundation, said the survey’s results were indicative that German’s trust in democracy and its institutions is on a downhill path, and described it, along with people’s economic concerns, as a “worrying development.”
