Information on Mittelstand enterprises

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Geopolitical challenges

For many decades, the multilateral dismantling of trade barriers and broad trade policy stability contributed ...

SME Development Barometer

IfM Bonn uses the "Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises", to report semiannually on the current ...

12.01.2026 An overview of the self-employed

Germany has around 3.6 million self-employed people. A third of them are women, and a quarter of all self-employed people have a migrant background.

09.01.2026 What makes entrepreneurs resilient

If entrepreneurs can draw on individual social capital and functioning networks and if they are also mentally and emotionally stabile, it is generally easier for them to survive sudden disruptions and crises.

Future Panel Mittelstand 2025: Skills shortages and rising labour costs are putting pressure on companies

More research approaches through a focus on everyday businesses

Pragmatic reaction to US tariffs

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IfM-Position Paper

The impact of the provisional US-EU trade agreement on Mittelstand enterprises

On 27 July 2025, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump settled on a preliminary trade agreement. Of particular relevance to Mittelstand enterprises is that US import tariffs on most goods will only rise to 15% instead of the 30% previously anounced.

In other areas, such as the pharmaceutical industry, the level of customs duties remains unclear, while tariffs of 50% will continue to be levied on steel and aluminium imports into the US.