From the Handelsblatt archive: Our Eastern European neighbor is attracting more Germans than it has been for a long time. Why is that? And what can Germany learn from Poland?
Warsaw. The blue Porsche creeps through Warsaw's rush hour traffic, inside there is techno blaring from the speakers, outside we go past construction sites. “There used to be an old brewery site here,” says Kevin Wörner, pointing out the window, “today everything is full of offices.” A few streets away, a new glass tower is currently being built - the center of Warsaw almost looks like Frankfurt's financial district.
Wörner drives into the underground car park of a new six-story building. A few months ago, the 33-year-old moved into his office here with “Channel Craft”. The company builds social media content for medium-sized companies in the USA and Germany.
Until a year ago, Wörner lived in Berlin. But because of his ex-girlfriend he spent a lot of time in Warsaw. Over the months, the idea of moving here completely matured.
In 2025, it wasn't just Wörner who emigrated to Poland: 4,941 other Germans did the same. This puts the country ahead of Great Britain, Italy and the Netherlands. Since the pandemic, not so many German citizens have moved to the neighboring country to the east.
At the same time, only 1,720 Germans returned from Poland - so the “immigration balance”, as the Federal Statistical Office uses the official language, is negative.
Why are more and more Germans moving across the Oder? What exactly works better in Poland's economy than in Germany? And what should we learn from our eastern neighbor so as not to permanently lose skilled workers?
The new pull to the east
“My mother is Polish, but I have felt like a German all my life,” says Wörner. “You grow up in Germany, all your friends are German.” He often encountered prejudices: “When I used to introduce myself as half-Polish, I was often told: Give my car back.”
The Poland of today has nothing to do with that of the past: “There is an incredible spirit of optimism, everyone here is very bullish,” says Wörner. A stark contrast to Germany, where he only hears from his friends about what's going wrong. “It just drags you down.”
Warsaw is now very international. “I have friends here from Ukraine, India, Iran, Turkey.” Everyone is very motivated, and many are also learning the language in order to integrate - even though almost everyone here speaks English. Wörner's Polish now also sounds fluent.
Kevin Wörner takes off the slippers next to his desk, slips on black hotel slippers and sits down on the office sofa. He employs six people permanently in Warsaw, plus freelancers.
Wörner started on YouTube when he was 16. After graduating from high school, he worked in strategy consulting at Roland Berger, then switched to venture capital and moved to Shanghai for three years. At some point he started creating YouTube channels for companies on the side - the foundation for his current company.
On average, Poland's economy has grown by three to four percent per year over the past 20 years. Jens Althoff was in Warsaw for the first time in 2001. Today he is head of the Warsaw office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. “In Germany we often still have a rather distorted image of Poland.”
Also because the Polish economy was even weaker than the Ukrainian economy after the end of the Soviet Union 30 years ago. Many in Germany are not aware of the extent to which Poland has changed. In his view, Poland is becoming the German counterpart: “Infrastructure is being invested and expanded, the level of digitalization is high, the trains run on time, the train stations are in top condition,” says Althoff.
From Wörner's point of view, several aspects speak for Poland:
Finance: tax advantages
Up to an annual turnover of two million euros, Wörner only pays nine percent corporation tax for his “Sp. z o.o.”, the equivalent of a GmbH. In Germany it would be 15 percent, plus the solidarity surcharge and, depending on the municipality, the trade tax. Overall, Wörner would get at least 30 percent.
Everything in Poland over two million is taxed at 19 percent. The additional partnership that he founded for personal projects only incurs sales tax of 8.5 percent. On top of that, people who move their tax residence to Poland can receive an amount of almost 20,000 euros completely exempt from income tax for up to four years. “From a tax perspective, it’s much more attractive here,” says Wörner.
His company recently broke the monthly sales limit of 100,000 euros. Wörner has 30 customers so far. Polish people aren't there yet, but he also wants to grow here in the country.
He wants to expand the sales team to ten people soon. There is a staggered plan for employees: in the first year he only has to employ one person permanently, in the second year two. This means Wörner remains flexible. “I feel like everything is a little easier and more entrepreneurial here.”
Modernization: Digital and unbureaucratic
In addition, he has the feeling that tax money is being used better. “What I have to offer here in the city, how clean everything is, how well the infrastructure works, there is no comparison with Germany.” Here he has a network, a start-up culture, as well as operas and national theaters, the seat of government and all the companies that are well-known.
Poland is now ahead of Germany when it comes to digitization and bureaucracy: registering in Poland was extremely easy. “When I think about how long the GmbH lasted back then, there were a thousand little hiccups.” The notary appointment was not possible online at the time; he had to wait a long time for the commercial register entry, as well as for the tax number. In Poland, the whole process only took two days: “There is a portal called S24, every citizen has a digital profile and everything can be registered online.” The tax number is also assigned directly.
And the cost of living is lower. The concept of the “milk bar” still exists from communist times. “It’s basically cafeteria food, but with a restaurant setting,” says Wörner. For around five euros you get a schnitzel with a side salad and potatoes, plus a drink. "It tastes like mom cooked it. And it's far cheaper than the ten euros I had to pay for a kebab in Frankfurt the other day."
The downside: Poland's success comes at a price
The downside of Warsaw's attractiveness is the rise in prices. In the district in the center where Wörner's office is located, the purchase prices would be around 25,000 złoty per square meter, the equivalent of just under 6,000 euros. “It really took off,” says Wörner. His Polish friends could no longer afford real estate in the center of Warsaw. He pays around 11,000 złoty a month in rent for the 110 square meter office with a roof terrace. "In the outlying areas, however, it is still very cheap, even in smaller cities away from Warsaw. Overall, we are still below the level of large German cities."
“I would describe how dynamically this country has developed as a whole as the European success story of the last few decades,” says foundation director Althoff. Of course there are still rural areas that have been left behind. But overall, Germany could learn a lot from Poland when it comes to dynamics and the implementation of projects.
“The way the country is moving things forward is remarkable,” says Althoff. The younger generation is also excellently educated. “In Germany, this generation often immediately starts discussing work-life balance.” Here in Poland, on the other hand, the young people would want to create something, do something, and would make an effort for it.
The search for Polish land
The cabaret artist Steffen Möller also sees similarities between the residents of both countries. People drink beer and enjoy grilling, both are allotment people, and the Polish language alone has 2,000 German loanwords. “The cuisine is also quite similar: meat, potatoes, dumplings,” says Möller.
The cabaret artist has written several books and stage programs about German-Polish relations and has been commuting between Warsaw and Berlin for many years. He is here at least every six to eight weeks.
Even though he doesn't have a smartphone himself and uses an old Nokia, he's also impressed by how much the Poles are technologically ahead of the Germans. For example, “scan cars” that check whether the parking fee has been paid as they drive past. “In Berlin this failed for data protection reasons.” He is also impressed that the government simply decides to reduce the burden on citizens by offering a 15 percent fuel discount. “Poland often stands for radical citizen-friendly measures,” says Möller.
Three million Poles currently live in Germany. “Many people miss the easy going, the Polish joy of life in their German life,” says Möller. His new stage program is therefore called “Polschland” – it is an attempt to create a state that combines the best of both countries. "There are no returnees. Anyone who has been away will never really be at home in either country again," says Möller.
He perceives Poland's society as a whole to be very conservative. “The CDU would be too socialist for the people here.” He also describes the country's rise as an “economic success story”. But: “There is no paradise here, there are enormous problems.” Society is deeply torn between conservative and liberal. “This rift runs through families and teaching staff,” says Möller. Not talking about it would be “like ignoring the AfD phenomenon in Germany.”
The right-wing PiS party has influenced the media and courts since it first came to power. Television has also increasingly become a “propaganda machine”. “What Poland also teaches us: There will be a time after the AfD,” believes Möller.
Germany can learn from Poland
Of course, not everything is going perfectly here either, says Christine Schmitt. “But you notice the desire there is to implement things in a solution-oriented manner.” Schmitt has been in Poland regularly for five years. Her partner there is a lawyer and she works in leadership development. She constantly commutes between the two worlds and has a residence in both countries: in Schweppenhausen, on the edge of the Hunsrück, and in Krakow.
“I recently founded a Polish parent company and a German subsidiary,” says Schmitt. In Poland, the entry in the company register only took three days. “In Germany, a similar process kept me busy for two and a half months with dozens of letters and legal problems – and I’m not a large corporation.” In Poland people are more pragmatic and in government offices you are seen as a customer.
From the very beginning, the 40-year-old was impressed by how extremely advanced Poland is in digitalization. “There were gas station apps here five years ago: the license plate is scanned, you fill up, drive away again, the amount is debited automatically.” At the Żabka supermarket you can sometimes shop 24/7, “a robot arm makes you the hot dog”. Germany shows such prototypes at trade fairs and they are already in use in Poland.
Or Blik, the Polish payment system: an app, like Wero, only it has been around here for ten years. “Hardly anyone uses Paypal here anymore,” says Schmitt. Another example is the citizen app mObywatel. There you will find your ID card, driver's license, vehicle documents, health card and electronic medical record. “When you buy a property, you release your data to the bank for a certain period of time, it checks your credit score and approves the loan within 15 minutes,” says Schmitt.
In April 2025 she and her partner bought an apartment in a Kraków suburb. The single-family house with 200 square meters was demolished and an apartment building with four units is now being built. They are expected to be able to move in in October. “It only took a year and a half from the first idea, through the notary appointment and building application to the interior work,” says Schmitt. The former homeowners do not receive any money, but rather one of the new apartments. "In Germany this is unthinkable. Here in Poland it is completely normal."
Schmitt will spend between 300,000 and 350,000 euros on her 75 square meter with 200 square meter garden, including interior work. Daycare centers are nearby, a school around the corner and doctors. What you need to know when buying a house: There are only variable interest rates in Poland. “This can potentially make financing significantly more expensive,” says Schmitt.
In addition, the price level in Krakow is completely different than in Warsaw, for example. In the capital, the gross wage would be an average of 4,400 euros. “In Krakow, Gdansk, Silesia, everywhere where there is an economy, the average income is 2200 euros.” In eastern Poland, in rural areas, it is only 900 to 1200 euros. “If prices rise throughout Poland, that of course leads to frustration,” says Schmitt.
Germany should learn a little more pragmatism from Poland - and not look down on the country from above. “We should finally start learning from our neighbors too.” In Germany they don't rely on trust, but on rules. Things are different in Poland: “Rules have long ensured that the country was oppressed like under communism.” That's why the state is trying to rebuild trust. “I consider that to be of great value.”
