"Made for Germany": Rede von Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz (CDU) | 30.09.2026

Yes — dear Roland Busch, dear Christian Seewing, dear Martin Blessing, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for the invitation and the kind welcome today. I am delighted that we can celebrate together the first anniversary of the Made for Germany initiative — and we really can celebrate it, because it is a great success. When we met a year ago for the kickoff event at the Federal Chancellery, we had commitments of around 600 billion euros up to 2028, and that sum has since grown to over 800 billion euros. And Mr. Busch, as you just said, the number of members of this initiative — the number of companies making concrete investment commitments at the location in Germany — has more than doubled to over 140. It can be said quite simply: this room is full of confidence, this room is full of optimism, this room is also full of trust in Germany as a business location. And for that I simply want to thank all of you very warmly.

Because this is now really not only a necessary but above all an encouraging message in these days — for me, for the entire federal government, but above all for our country, the Federal Republic of Germany. And we are — and I say this quite openly and honestly — not yet where we in the federal government wanted to be at this point, in the autumn of 2025. But we have set quite a few things in motion, and the fact that you stay on board, that this initiative is developing so well, that Made for Germany has really become a brand — that is a strong signal that also gives me personally courage. Ladies and gentlemen, the investment commitments are not only of economic and strategic importance for Germany as a business location. They also send an important signal to the people in our country — a signal to employees that business is taking responsibility, that it is ready to invest in Germany as a business location, and simply the message to the young people in Germany that it pays to invest in Germany. And I believe that is the most important message we can send in these days. Your companies are able to take on the challenges of our time in Germany and to hold their own in global competition. And if we combine that with the special fund for investment and climate protection, one of the greatest innovation and investment initiatives we have seen in Germany in recent decades emerges. I will come back to that in a moment, but that is precisely what creates growth and jobs in Germany. These investments also increase the productivity of our business location, and that is exactly what we urgently need in order to preserve our prosperity in the future.

That is the abstract version of the story. But the great thing is — and you already mentioned a few examples of this, Mr. Busch — it is now becoming very concrete. Because thanks to the investments of the companies represented here, we saw last year, for example, the opening of the industrial AI cloud from Telekom and SAP in Munich, which increased sovereign AI computing capacity in Germany by up to 50%, specifically for the needs of the already mentioned industrial AI applications. We see the opening of the Smart Power Fab from Infineon in Dresden — you just mentioned that too — which not only creates 1,000 new jobs but also contributes to the resilience of supply chains for our country. We see the expansion of Carl Zeiss's founding site in Jena into one of the most modern integrated high-tech campuses in Europe. We see the further development of Festo's site in Rohrbach in southern Thuringia — all the way at the other end of the republic — into a flagship plant and thus one of the world's leading centers for linear and automation technology. And we see, which pleases me especially, the build-up of research and development hubs for laser fusion, among other things through Marvel Fusion. Ladies and gentlemen, that is really a great thing. We do not yet know whether this technology will one day really lead to a fusion reactor on the grid, but we have the optimism and the confidence — and that is also the claim in the coalition agreement — that we want to put the first fusion reactor in the world into operation in Germany.

We could now talk at length about each of these individual projects, and it would be worthwhile, because it is fascinating in many respects. But we won't manage that this evening, because there are now 300 lighthouse projects of this kind that you companies have reported. Each of these individual projects gives us a glimpse of our future in Germany. It is about investments in sovereign computing infrastructure, so that in the future we can unlock industrial data treasures in Germany and use them for AI applications. Allow me to say something here, in particular with an appeal to the Mittelstand — to Germany's small and medium-sized enterprises. The Mittelstand in Germany must make better use of its data. If the Mittelstand in Germany unlocks this data treasure and makes it usable, then we have one of the greatest location advantages in the world, because no other country in the world has a diverse and multi-layered industrial Mittelstand like Germany. So please open yourselves up to these possibilities, also in connection with future investments.

I want to add: there are investments in new and renewable energy sources, through which we can reduce emissions and become more resilient. It is about modern medical technology — a location without equal anywhere else in the world. I told the new Federal Minister of Health: you are not just taking on a large area of responsibility in social security, you are also taking on responsibility for the fastest-growing sector of our economy — that is the entire medical field, from maternity care through the whole value chain of medical care to care in homes for the elderly and nursing homes. We always see it as a cost factor. Yes, it is a huge cost factor, but it is also an economic factor for our country. Again: the fastest-growing sector of our economy, if you take the entire sector, including medical technology and the pharmaceutical industry, together. We are going very deliberately to strengthen our defense capability by building the most modern production facilities. It is about robotics, it is about critical raw materials that we can, for example, recover from used batteries, and so on and so forth. In short: right here with you, ladies and gentlemen, the future for Germany is being made very concretely and tangibly. That is what it is about when we now talk very concretely about growth and competitiveness in our country. That is what it is about for you with this Made for Germany initiative, and that is also what it is about for me as Chancellor and for us in the federal government. We want to support you and all your employees in investing in the future of our country. We want to make it easier for you and for all of us together. That is the most important message. In politics one can only paint this picture of the future, but only you can bring it to life in your companies.

Yes, in order to achieve that, we have to do something — we have to do more. The need for structural reform in our country is great. We discussed this at length a year ago in the Federal Chancellery. We also discussed it half a year ago at the Hannover Messe — which, by the way, I found to be one of the most successful Hannover Messe trade fairs I have attended in recent years, even though the number of exhibitors has become smaller. But the cooperation with Brazil, shortly after the Mercosur agreement entered into force — for which we also campaigned hard at the European level, let me add in brackets — the decision did not come easily to me. To agree to this agreement in the European Council — to agree for the first time to a trade agreement of the European Union even though France had not agreed to it. I did it anyway; I coordinated this with the French president and told him that I would agree to it so that the agreement could enter into force. Shortly afterwards, the Hannover Messe with Brazil as partner country. I think that was a great success, and also a very nice sequence in these decisions. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have achieved a fair amount of legislative work. I want to mention only the Investment and Future Law here. It is a law that enables us to accelerate road construction — bridges, rail and industrial plants — so that real momentum is now being created in infrastructure development. We have the money, and we have now also created the regulatory possibilities. The law has been in force since 21 July.

And those who come from the rural Ruhr area, or from the Ruhr region, know that we have an autobahn connection there that we rebuilt, with the greatest effort, within a period of just under four years. That is the famous Sauerland A45 Rahmedetal Bridge. It had become unusable for traffic, was blown up, and was rebuilt within four years with hundreds of special approvals. What we did with those special approvals — because it was urgently necessary, including waiving a new planning approval procedure — is now possible for all infrastructure projects in Germany. We made that possible through this law. Replacement buildings no longer need a new planning approval procedure. We can now do all of this in an accelerated manner, and this infrastructure development is under a special public interest, and this special public interest displaces all other approval procedures. That is why this is now a real decision that also allows us to build the infrastructure quickly. We have adopted the High-Tech Agenda Germany. With regard to cutting bureaucracy, we are concentrating on the essential constraints that we face through bureaucracy, through corresponding decisions. We agreed before the summer that we also want to make the labor market more flexible. There is a fair amount to catch up on there. We will discuss this next week in the coalition committee, because a whole series of labor market legislation still has to follow. But the structural reform of statutory health insurance has been adopted in part and has entered into force. A nursing care reform was decided this morning in the federal cabinet and sent on its way through parliament. A capital component in the statutory pension insurance was proposed by the commission — an important step for our country, ladies and gentlemen. We should have done this 30 years ago, just as many other countries in the world have long done, so that a substantial part of old-age provision for the broad population is funded by capital. We are doing it now. And the brilliant idea of the commission was not to do it in the second or third pillar but in the first one — so that automatically all employees subject to social insurance contributions in Germany have an additional capital-funded old-age provision.

A brief look at the European Union. In the week after next we will again discuss the capital markets union in the European Council — or as it is now called, the savings and investments union. The issue here is not primarily the question of adjusting the liability regimes, but the opening of the capital markets — including the opening up, for example, of the IPOs that we would like to see in Europe and that we currently see far too many of in the US. We want them here in Europe. But this presupposes that we have a broader and deeper capital market throughout the European Union. Now, these are only excerpts. You should not doubt my determination to implement all of this step by step. And if all of this goes reasonably well — and there are certainly doubts about the willingness of the federal government, about whether we really want this — if it goes reasonably well, actually putting these things into law, then Germany takes a big step forward. Only that way do we really get ahead. Only in that way will we have sustainable growth in the longer perspective.

We are at 1.3% this year. The economic research institutes have revised that upward. We are grateful for that. That is also the result of political decisions. But I admit it is also the result of decisions to invest with a great deal of debt. That is not yet a self-sustaining upswing for the coming years. The forecasts for 2027 and 2028 are again trending slightly downward. We have to correct that by taking substantial decisions and by getting reforms underway in this country, so that it really remains sustainable and durable. And in that spirit, ladies and gentlemen, thank you once again. The spirit of this evening is clear: we are working at full force on Germany as a business location, project by project, decision by decision. And that this is not motivational voodoo — what I am saying here — is shown by the figures just mentioned.

Perhaps one more remark, because I also see Verena Pauster here. We are seeing record numbers for startup formation. The year 2025 was already a record year, and 2026 has already matched 2025's record by summer. We have added 10 unicorns in Germany this year — there are now 39. In the first nine months of the year, startups raised 8 billion euros in venture capital. Across the whole of last year it was 7.5 billion. So you see, we owe this momentum — and I really want to say this once again — above all to you here in this room, to your commitment to Germany as a business location. Let us use this momentum. And that is also why, with the energetic support of Martin Blessing, we are organizing the investor conference Invest in Germany in the week after next. Many thanks to our Minister for Economic Affairs, Katharina Reiche, and to my investment commissioner, Martin Blessing, also for preparing this conference in two weeks' time. I am delighted that many of you will also take part. As members of this Made for Germany initiative, ladies and gentlemen, you are important multipliers on the international stage as well. In that spirit, thank you very, very much. I look forward to our further exchange and, above all, to another year of Made for Germany. Thank you very much.

Greetings. Hello, dear listeners. Thank you very much. Yes — and now on to further exchange, that is, to conversations with the assembled participants here in Berlin. The Federal Chancellor will now take the time, and we have the time once again with Professor Markus Rudolf to look at what he actually said. He had a lot — a lot of positivity, a lot of optimism and a lot of drive to offer.

Let me pick out one point. He says: we as the federal government, we have now done our homework, we have created the legal foundations. Is that really so?

Well, yes — with de-bureaucratization, some preconditions have been created. It is a... yes, but it has clearly moved in the right direction, that must be said very clearly. And what he said about building law — about the Investment and Future Law — that was indeed passed in July. That should already simplify things. We are nowhere near where we need to be; we were simply far, far too complicated. But I think one can already say that it is moving in the right direction. Then he said that, in addition, with the special fund for infrastructure and climate protection, the money is now also there. If private money now joins in, it may well trigger a sense of a new beginning. And we were talking earlier about this tender little sapling of economic growth that we now see. Perhaps it is already a small new beginning that we are seeing. I believe we can look at the future with a bit more optimism than we could half a year ago.

Yes, we also briefly discussed earlier that the economy definitely needs positive impulses, which events like this one are supposed to send. The Federal Chancellor mentioned lighthouse projects — 300 of them. Were those real lighthouse projects? Did you say, 'Oh yes,' to that?

Yes, they are also listed on the website of the Made for Germany initiative. Many of them are already lighthouse projects. I mean, we also said at the beginning that the question is, of course, how many of these projects really came about through the initiative and how many did not. But that Germany is becoming more digitalized, that Germany places more emphasis on capital markets, that Germany is paying more attention to ensuring that data centers and the like are built here — these are things that people were not talking about two years ago. He has at least recognized that the industrial future lies in the digital, that the factory of the future does not consist of assembly lines but of data centers. Artificial intelligence really is a major productivity leap, and the fact that Germany now wants to be part of it is at least right. We are lagging far, far behind the Americans. But what people call industrial AI is, so to speak, the second stage — the application of AI. And Germany could well have chances there, because Germany has traditionally always been good at industrial optimizations, at industrial processes.

Hmm. How much money from abroad actually still has to come in for the sapling in Germany to really become a stable, strong, hardy tree?

From abroad? Yes — of the 1,000 billion, roughly 150 billion comes from companies whose headquarters are not in Germany. Only about 50 billion actually comes directly from abroad. By the way, interestingly, Germany invests far more abroad than foreigners invest in Germany. If something more were to come, that would of course already be a strong signal of a new beginning. And if this initiative leads to — they call it foreign direct investments — if these direct investments were to intensify, that would be a very strong signal, and it would then also pull domestic investment along strongly.