In March 2026, German district courts registered 2,308 requests for corporate insolvency, marking a 15.8% increase compared to the previous month of the previous year, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). It is important to note that these figures are recorded only after the insolvency court’s initial decision, meaning the actual time an insolvency application was lodged is often close to three months earlier.
Looking at the first quarter of 2026, 6,275 corporate insolvency requests were recorded, representing a 6.5% increase over the same quarter in 2025. The total debt owed by creditors in these Q1 2026 insolvencies reached approximately 9.3 billion euros. This figure is a decrease from the roughly 19.9 billion euros reported in the first quarter of 2025. Analysts attribute this drop in debt claims-despite the growing number of bankruptcies-to the fact that significantly more economically substantial companies filed for bankruptcy in the first quarter of 2025 than were registered in the first quarter of 2026.
In terms of severity, the incidence of corporate insolvency in Q1 2026 stood at 17.7 cases per 10,000 companies. The highest frequency was observed in the transport and warehousing sector, with 32.1 cases per 10,000 companies. This was followed by the hospitality industry with 30.3 cases, and the construction sector recording 26.7 insolvencies.
Furthermore, statistical data shows that consumer insolvencies rose markedly. In March 2026, there were 7,462 consumer insolvencies, an increase of 18.9% compared to the same month last year. For the entire first quarter of 2026, 19,679 consumer insolvencies were reported, which constitutes a 6.0% rise compared to the first quarter of 2025.
