More than 90% of approved arms exports in recent years originate from just four German federal states: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Lower Saxony, and Schleswig-Holstein. This concentration has been highlighted by a Federal Government response to an inquiry submitted by the Left Party in the Bundestag, as reported by Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.
According to the data, between 2023 and the end of April 2026, individual export permits for weapons and other armaments totaled €12.4 billion for Baden-Württemberg. Bavaria accounted for €12.3 billion of the total, while Lower Saxony saw a value of €9.3 billion, and Schleswig-Holstein contributed €3.3 billion. Collectively, these four states accounted for approximately 91% of all individual export permits issued during this period.
The focus on these four states is fundamentally explained by the production sites of Germany’s major defense companies. In fact, up to April of this current year, only Baden-Württemberg had been granted export licenses valued at €4 billion-a figure that already surpasses the total value of the entire previous year.
Cansu Özdemir, the Left Party’s foreign policy spokesperson, predicts that 2026 could see another record high in arms exports. She noted that in the first four months of 2026 alone, individual permits for defense materials worth €7.3 billion had been issued, of which €5.3 billion were for weapons. Özdemir stated that if this level of activity persists, the total for the full year could approach €22 billion, significantly higher than the previous year’s record of roughly €13 billion.
