Wo liegt der Kern des deutschen Mittelstands?

The Mittelstand is deemed to be a particular strength of the German economy. In international comparison, though, the contribution of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to the economy is larger in many southern European countries. In this article, we argue that SMEs do not capture the core of the German Mittelstand, which instead lies in medium-sized companies larger than the current SME defi nition.