“Hardly any room for growth”: The number of company bankruptcies continues to rise - the highest level in 13 years

The wave of insolvencies continues: the district courts registered more than 2,000 proceedings filed in August, over four percent more than in August 2025. According to the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, there is no relief in sight.

The number of company bankruptcies in Germany has continued to rise. In August, the district courts registered a total of 2,067 corporate insolvencies, as the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced. That was 4.4 percent more than in the same month last year. “The number of bankruptcies reached its highest level in 13 years in August,” explained DIHK medium-sized business expert Marc Evers. The current slight economic upturn cannot stop development. The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) does not see any relief in business closures for the rest of the year either.

“For the whole of 2026, we expect around 26,000 corporate bankruptcies. That would be an average of more than 70 bankruptcies per day and the highest annual level since 2012,” explained Evers. The persistently high cost pressure leaves many companies with little room for investment and growth. “Economic policy now has it in its hands to create the conditions for a substantial upswing,” said the DIHK expert. The companies needed noticeable relief in labor and energy costs, less bureaucracy and reliable framework conditions for investments: "Only when the companies can invest and grow on their own again will the wave of insolvencies come to an end."

According to Destatis, 17,252 filed corporate insolvencies were registered in the first eight months of the current year. That was 6.6 percent more than in the same period last year. The district courts put the creditors' claims from the company bankruptcies reported between January and August 2026 at around 25.9 billion euros.

In the same period last year, receivables were around 37.2 billion euros. "This decline in claims despite the increasing number of corporate bankruptcies is due to the fact that more economically important companies filed for bankruptcy in the first eight months of 2025 than in 2026," explained Destatis.

When looking at the results reported by the Federal Statistical Office, it should be taken into account that the applications are only included in the statistics after the first decision of the insolvency court. In many cases, the actual date of the insolvency application is almost three months beforehand.

The economic research institute IWH from Halle, on the other hand, evaluates the current insolvency announcements from the German registry courts and links them to the balance sheet figures of the affected companies. It collects early indicators that precede insolvency events by two to three months. The number of company bankruptcies rose slightly in October.