East German machine orders rise in 2025 despite national slump
Mechanical engineering companies in eastern Germany recorded an increase in orders in 2025, bucking the national trend, industry association VDMA said on Friday.
Orders rose by around 3% in real terms, while order intake across Germany as a whole stagnated, the association said.
The growth in the east was driven mainly by stronger demand from abroad, particularly from the eurozone, where orders increased by 4%. However, the VDMA added that the sector also received a strong boost from domestic demand toward the end of the year.
“The figures for 2025 provide a solid foundation, but no reason to sound the all-clear,” said Oliver Köhn, managing director of the VDMA’s East Regional Association.
To sustain growth, significantly better regional business conditions are needed, he argued.
“This primarily requires speeding up administrative processes so that investments in mechanical engineering and major projects are not slowed down by lengthy approval procedures at the state level,” Köhn said.
According to the VDMA East Regional Association, it represents around 350 mechanical engineering companies, plants and branches in the states of Saxony, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
On average in 2025, the sector employed about 78,200 people in eastern Germany, though the figures cover only companies with at least 50 employees.
