The local court of Aschaffenburg today approved the application of Adler Modemärkte AG and opened preliminary insolvency proceedings in self-administration pursuant to Section 270b (1), (2) of the German Insolvency Code, new version, according to a press release. Within the scope of the preliminary self-administration, the business operations of Adler Modemärkte AG shall be continued in their entirety and the company shall be restructured by means of an insolvency plan. The management board of the company will continue to have the power of administration and disposition.

The number of corporate bankruptcies in Germany experienced a “noticeable” increase compared with pre-pandemic levels at the end of last year, though not as bad as feared, Bloomberg News reported. It’s the first snapshot of the country’s regular insolvency trends following a temporary suspension of filing requirements as part of Germany’s pandemic support measures. In December, 921 partnerships and corporations in the country were reported as bankrupt, just under 30% higher than in the previous three months, according to a report by the IWH Halle Institute for Economic Research.

Germany wants to extend beyond January a freeze on insolvency rules put in place to avoid a wave of corporate bankruptcies due to the coronavirus pandemic, Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht told the Handelsblatt newspaper, Reuters reported. Last March, the government offered respite to companies that find themselves in financial trouble due to the pandemic by allowing them to delay filing for bankruptcy until the end of September.

In her last New Year’s address as chancellor, Angela Merkel called on Germans to remain disciplined in the fight against the coronavirus, Bloomberg News reported. The German leader -- who will step down after elections in September -- said that perseverance would be needed during a harsh winter as a vaccination campaign ramps up. Amid concerns about its safety, she said she would get the shot as soon as it’s her turn. Germany is struggling to contain the spread of Covid-19, like many of its neighbors.

An easyJet board member has resigned following scrutiny over her role at Wirecard, the collapsed German payments company. Anastassia Lauterbach quit on Monday as a non-executive director of the low-cost carrier with immediate effect after less than two years’ service, the Financial Times reported. Her exit came days after influential shareholder advisory group ISS questioned her place on the board, given that she had been a member of the supervisory board of Wirecard, the scandal-hit German company that filed for insolvency in June after revealing a multiyear frau

Germany has been accused of providing unfair state aid to Europe’s largest railway company Deutsche Bahn in a complaint to the EU Commission, the Financial Times reported. Transport provider FlixMobility has filed the complaint, saying Berlin has delayed a request to Brussels to allow a €5bn capital increase to Deutsche Bahn because of fears it will be rejected for breaking state aid rules.

An EY anti-fraud team warned in 2018 that “red-flag indicators” at Wirecard pointed to potential accounting manipulation and required further investigation, according to documents seen by the Financial Times. Just weeks later, the separate EY team in charge of Wirecard’s annual audit decided against investigating the matter further and subsequently issued an unqualified audit, the Financial Times reported. Wirecard, a once high-flying German payments group, this summer collapsed into insolvency in one of Europe’s biggest postwar accounting frauds.

Germany is heading for a double-dip recession this winter after Berlin imposed a hard lockdown, economists have predicted, denting hopes that Europe’s largest economy will rebound to pre-pandemic levels by the start of 2022, the Financial Times reported. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government announced at the weekend that schools and most shops would be closed from Wednesday until January 10 in an effort to contain a surge in coronavirus infections. “Germany must brace itself for a second recession,” said Jörg Krämer, chief economist at Commerzbank.