"Poland has been the fastest growing economy in Europe for 40 years now," explains renowned economist Marcin Piątkowski from Kozminski University in Warsaw. The numbers back this up: While Germany was stuck in recession in 2024, the Polish economy grew by a whopping three percent.
This trend continued in 2025 - while the German economy grew by just 0.2 percent, Poland accelerated to growth of 3.6 percent.
Escape from bureaucracy: Why German companies are migrating
This dynamic is also attracting more and more German companies. Around 6,000 German companies are now active in Poland and have directly invested around 50 billion euros there - money and innovative strength that are missing in Germany.
An example of this change is the traditional Hessian company Dr. Schumacher. The company headquarters are still in Hesse, but the heart of production beats in Lubań, Poland. 1,200 employees produce up to 500 million packs of wet and disinfectant wipes for global brands.
One of the main reasons for success on site is speed. “If demand increases and I need a hall, then I have to be able to implement it within one to one and a half years and cannot wait three years for approval,” emphasizes managing director Paul Stanek. In Poland you can simply operate much more competitively than at home.
The “growth champion” scores with hard work and quality
Economist Piątkowski has dedicated a book to the phenomenon and calls Poland the new “growth champion of Europe”. The crucial difference from before: Investors no longer come just because of low wages, but because of the high quality of the workforce and the enormous motivation to perform.
"Since 1990, the average per capita income in Poland has almost quadrupled. In Germany it has only increased by half in the same period," said Piątkowski.
Nevertheless, people work in the neighboring country like hardly anywhere else: an average Pole statistically works up to 600 hours more per year than a German, according to the economist. Investors keep reporting that people here are “hungry” and desperately want to move forward.
Tax advantages instead of citizens' money
Poland also relies on completely different labor market incentives than Germany. There is no state system like the German citizen's benefit. Instead, the government rewards those who work with tax breaks. This also helps domestic companies such as the online giant Allegro, which has even prevailed against the US giant Amazon in its own country.
Young people in particular benefit: Employees up to the age of 26 in Poland do not pay a single cent of income tax - up to a limit of around 20,000 euros per year. In Germany, on the other hand, the tax authorities have long been asking young professionals of this age to pay. According to Piątkowski, this radical tax exemption is a key reason why Poland now has one of the three lowest unemployment rates in the entire European Union.
Poland is currently discussing a draft law to provide significant relief for families with at least two children. If both parents work and earn the same amount, the family income could remain tax-free up to a limit of around 65,000 euros per year.
The country is also attractive for private property purchases: Anyone who purchases property for the first time in their life is completely exempt from property transfer tax, which makes it much easier for young families to build up wealth, reports real estate agent David Lis.
Future in Germany? Better to go back to Poland
These conditions have an effect. Supported by a targeted return campaign by the Polish government, the migration movement between the two countries is turning around. In 2024, almost 91,000 people turned their backs on Germany to move to Poland. Only 82,000 people emigrated in the opposite direction. The bottom line is that Germany is losing 9,000 people to Poland in just one year.
“You can now expect a decent salary in Warsaw and live at a good standard,” reports lawyer Philip Panek, who grew up and studied in Germany but now works in a Warsaw law firm.
Joanna Stolarek, who previously lived in Berlin for 30 years and now works in Warsaw, also withdrew because of the incentives: "The tax relief is part of this campaign. 20,000 euros will be waived off tax returns for four years. That's an argument."
Digital instead of complicated: administrative procedures in Poland
In addition to the financial incentives, the digital ease is particularly attractive. Poland simply skipped the German “fax phase” in administration. A lot can be regulated using a government app on your smartphone: identification at offices, banks and notaries, setting up a company, digital prescriptions or opening accounts are all paperless.
Lars Gutheil, General Manager of the German-Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK) in Warsaw, sees this as a clear location advantage: "All administrative processes - most of them anyway - can now be carried out completely digitally. I would say that Poland is certainly at least a decade ahead of us in this area."
Infrastructure at record speed: everything in one hand
The same applies to infrastructure. While Germany has failed to invest sufficiently in recent years, Poland has done so at a record pace. The highway network alone has been expanded by more than 4,000 kilometers in the past two decades.
This was made possible by special laws. While Germany, for example, awards the planning and construction in two separate, lengthy tenders, Poland combines them in a single procedure.
"Whoever wins the tender does both: he plans and builds and also obtains the permits - all in one hand. Then a lot of things can be done in parallel, which saves bureaucracy and time," explains Jędrzej Puzynski from the Polish Roads and Motorways Directorate (GDDKiA).
Big plans for the future
And the expansion course continues: The country is currently planning to build a major airport between Warsaw and Łódź, which will act as an important north-south rail route for the European Union. The government has declared the motto “100 minutes” for the mega project. “That means: The maximum it should take to get to this airport is 100 minutes by train, no matter where I live in Poland,” explains AHK boss Gutheil.
To achieve this, the rail infrastructure throughout the country is being radically modernized. Modern infrastructure, high levels of digitalization, less bureaucracy and lower taxes - Poland's recipe for success also provides Germany with plenty of material to emulate.
