Workers at Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe voted to approve a sweeping restructuring plan, setting the stage for the revival of Germany's largest steelmaker, contingent on Thyssenkrupp AG's commitment to finance the initiative, Reuters reported. The IG Metall union said on Friday that 77% of participating members supported the plan, with 62% turnout in the vote held from July 21 to September 4. The restructuring programme includes cuts to jobs, working hours, and bonus payments, as well as site closures, but avoids forced redundancies until 2030.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz offered Germany’s support for Switzerland in its bid to reduce the punishingly high trade levy US President Donald Trump imposed on the export-dependent nation last month, Bloomberg News reported. The 39% tariff Trump slapped on Switzerland is the highest for any developed country and officials in Bern are trying to persuade his administration to accept a new offer by October.

The number of unemployed people in Germany has topped three million for the first time in a decade, labour office figures showed on Friday, raising the stakes for the government's huge investment plans to deliver quick results, Reuters reported. A total of 3.02 million people were unemployed in August in seasonally unadjusted terms, with an increase of 46,000 in the number of people out of work from the previous month. "In Germany, three million is not just a number.

German banks blocked PayPal payments totalling more than 10 billion euros ($11.7 billion) over fraud concerns, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Wednesday. The payments were halted on Monday after lenders flagged millions of suspicious direct debits from PayPal that appeared last week, the newspaper said. A PayPal spokesperson said a temporary service interruption had affected "certain transactions from our banking partners and potentially their customers", but that the issue had now been resolved.

Germany’s economic output shrank by more than initially estimated in the second quarter, with industry faring worse than expected as U.S. tariffs hurt exports, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product in Europe’s largest economy fell 0.3% on quarter in the three months to the end of June, according to fresh estimates, a sharper rate than the 0.1% decline initially estimated made last month, statistics agency Destatis said. That performance offset much of the 0.3% increase in GDP in the first quarter. Exports of goods fell 0.6% in the quarter as U.S.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG is working on a debut significant risk transfer tied to billions of dollars of U.S. commercial real estate loans, Bloomberg News reported. The Garching-based bank is sounding out investors about the potential transaction. In June, PBB said it would discontinue its US business completely and planned to wind down, securitize or sell a portfolio of about €4.1 billion of US commercial real estate loans. Earlier this month it booked €314 million in charges linked to its decision to exit the U.S.

German banks’ asset quality will come under pressure from rising corporate insolvencies in the coming months amid a challenging macroeconomic environment and persistent high interest rates, Fitch Ratings says. Fitch expects banks’ exposure to vulnerable sectors and anaemic economic growth to result in heightened credit losses in corporate and SME loan portfolios.

Germany’s goods exports to the U.S. slid further in June, as the impact of tariffs on the country’s export-oriented economy continued to bite, while industrial production also took an unexpectedly strong hit, the Wall Street Journal reported. Exports from Europe’s largest economy to the U.S. slid 2.1% to 11.8 billion euros ($13.76 billion), the third consecutive monthly decrease to the lowest value since February 2022, according to adjusted figures published by Germany’s statistics agency Destatis on Thursday. They were 8.4% lower than the same month last year.

Italian-inspired premium denim label Closed has filed for insolvency and placed a corresponding application with the Hamburg district court in Germany. Despite its financial difficulties, business operations are to continue unchanged, FashionNetwork.com reported. Hamburg-based lawyer Stefan Denkhaus from the law firm BRL has been appointed provisional insolvency administrator. The pre-financing of insolvency benefits for the approximately 400 employees has already been initiated to ensure continuous salary payments and thus the stability of the operating business.

The Esports Advocate has learned that Berlin-based esports data firm Bayes Esports Solutions GmbH was put under administration and filed for insolvency in late May (case no. 3602 IN 3585/25),ESportsAdvocate.net reported. On Aug. 1, the Charlottenburg district court in Berlin determined that Bayes is both illiquid and over-indebted, triggering a main insolvency proceeding (Hauptinsolvenzverfahren) in accordance with EU Regulation 2015/848. The court received the insolvency filing on May 26. Berlin-based attorney Dr.