No German company makes it into the ranking of the 100 largest companies in the world.

That has great symbolic power.

However, this only applies to the stock market values ​​of the companies.

Large American tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet have dominated there for years - their share prices have risen extremely over the past 20 years.

The Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco made it to the top this year because of the sharp rise in oil prices in the wake of the Ukraine war.

But where are the Germans?

If you don't look at the stock market values, but at the companies' sales, things don't look quite so bleak: Among the 100 companies in the world with the highest sales there are still nine German companies - including the large German car manufacturers Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, as well as Uniper, Allianz, Telekom, Post, BASF and Eon.

This shows that although German industry is not lagging behind, it does have a problem that could still get in the way of some companies.

On the stock exchange, traditional German groups are not given as much credit as many young companies whose stock market value also increases their opportunities for takeovers.