These Are the Biggest German Family-Owned Enterprises

They are of utmost importance for the German economy, standing for innovation, quality and long-term-vision: Germany´s family-enterprises. Die Deutsche Wirtschaft determines and analyses the 1,000 biggest of them.

The article has been updated 2022-07-29

The Germans call it the “Mittelstand” – and the unique structure of Germany’s strong sector of family-owned companies has become a synonym for technological strength, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit all over the world. In fact, the Mittelstand not only accounts for the overwhelming majority of all businesses in Germany (over 3 million), it also provides some 60 percent of all jobs and over 80 percent of all apprenticeships.

Depending on its specific definition, the family-owned companies range all the way from small craft workshops to hidden champions worth up to a billion euros. Their range expands from wellknown companies as Volkswagen or Bosch to players that are worth billions as Henkel, Merck or Dr. Oetker, and often includes Hidden Champions as Brose, Eberspächer or Harting.

The „Top 1,000“-Ranking

Which, however, are the leading family-owned companies in Germany? In its “Top  1,000” database project, the research team at Die Deutsche Wirtschaft identifies and analyses Germany’s biggest family-owned companies companies and create a ranking list due to turn-over. Underlying the newest data, the latest version of the ranking shows the impressive success of these companies: the “Top  1,000” companies alone represent a turnover of 1.9 Trillion (US) Euro and 7.8 Million employees.

The companies are starting with a turnover of about 260 Million Euro at number 1,000 and go up to the 256 „billionaires“ (US) like Volkswagen, BMW or Continental. The list thus represents a veritable „Who’s Who“ of well-sounding names, and at the same time offers a veritable pool of rather little-known, yet highly successful companies.

German family-owned enterprises: industry leads

The strength of the german family-owned companies is indeed unique worldwide: 322 of the Top-1,000 companies can be identified as global leaders in relevant and high-turnover markets.

64 percent are to be classified as industry, 18 percent as service providers and 18 percent as retailers. When ranked according to sector, most of the Top-1,000-companies are from the mechanical engineering:

1. mechanical engineering (54 companies)
2. automotive  (51)
3. automotive trade (45)
4. electrical engineering (32)
5. logistics (30)

Spread over whole of Germany

A very typical factor of the biggest family-owned companies, as well as for the german economy in general, is that they are located over the whole of Germany: The Top-1,000 companies are spread over 563 cities. With 62 such companies, the city of Hamburg is home to the most top-family owned companies, followed by Munich with 29 and Dusseldorf and Bremen with 21. When ranked according to federal state, most are based in North Rhine-Westphalia (253), followed by Bavaria (199) and Baden-Wurttemberg (198).

All these companies have one thing in common: being family-owned and -run, supplies them with decisive values which combine agility and high-class innovation with a long-term enterprise-vision. Values that make that certain difference for employees as well as for clients all over the world.

Related:

• the 10,000 most important german medium-sized companies
• List of the german World Market Leaders
• overview: B2B-Databases by Die Deutsche Wirtschaft

The complete ranking is available here in the DDW Reader Service as a list in Excel format. In addition to the address details, turnover and employee data, the ranking also includes a description of the particular field of each company and information on its year of foundation, directors and structure of ownership. 

The Top-100 of the 1.000 Biggest German Family-owned Enterprises

The complete ranking is available here in the DDW Reader Service as a list in Excel format. In addition to the address details, turnover and employee data, the ranking also includes a description of the particular field of each company and information on its year of foundation, directors and structure of ownership.