What is Mittelstand?
…Germany’s famous Mittelstand—more than 3 million small and midsize enterprises that form the backbone of Europe’s largest economy, 82 million people and 2.4 trillion euros strong, sprawling from the Rhine to the Oder—the hinge between the European Union’s east and west.
Family-owned companies with fewer than 500 employees and annual sales of less than 50 million euros—that employs more than 70 percent of German workers and contributes roughly half of the country’s GDP.
They take on 83 percent of all apprentices in Germany, more than their share of total employment.
“In the U.S., the focus is on entrepreneurship—it’s important to be a businessman and self-employed,” said Volker Wittberg, professor at a university of applied sciences in Bielefeld, which trains future Mittelstand employees. “Germany is a tinkering country, where you found a company once you’ve made an invention. Mittelstand is about products, not so much about the people behind.”
-Shlok
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