Despite increased economic uncertainty due to the Ukraine war and the corona pandemic, more large companies are being founded again in Germany.
In the first quarter, around 35,000 companies were founded, whose legal form and number of employees indicate greater economic importance.
That is 2.7 percent more than in the same quarter of the previous year, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Wednesday after evaluating the business reports.
The pre-crisis level from the first quarter of 2019 was also exceeded, by 0.5 percent.
There is also a positive trend among new small businesses.
The number of start-ups here rose by 3.2 percent to around 36,700 from January to March.
However, the pre-crisis level is still a long way off: compared to the quarter, there was a decline of 22.0 percent.
The number of newly established part-time businesses fell by 9.9 percent to around 85,500 in the first three months of the year.
According to experts, start-ups are of great economic importance.
"Start-ups stimulate competition and thus keep the pressure on efficiency high on established companies," emphasizes the state development bank KfW.
"By introducing new products and services, they support structural and technological change." Founders therefore play an important role in growth, employment and the future viability of the entire economy.
In addition to start-ups, the statistics office also counts the complete business closures.
In the first quarter of 2022, these were around 121,500, 6.2 percent higher than in the same period of the previous year.
Compared to the pre-crisis level, however, they were 12.6 percent lower.
This sharp decline “may be related to the government support measures in the Corona crisis, which were intended to mitigate the economic consequences of the pandemic for tradespeople and prevent business closures,” the statisticians explained.