Subsidies, government revenue & government spending in Germany

Berlin A few days ago, the head of the civil service association, Ulrich Silberbach, sounded the alarm again: the judiciary was “chronically overloaded”. Additional positions are urgently needed. In the presence of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) at the meeting of the civil servants’ association, he had recently grumbled about the “savings orgies” in the public sector.

Such complaints about the thinned-out state are often heard. the judiciary? overloaded. The welfare state? broken saved. The healthcare system? Thinned out.

But the angry speeches are not always backed up by facts. These show that in the past 20 years the state has not been dismantled, but much has been built up.

Many indicators that determine the size and activity of the state are now even at record levels; such as government revenue or the number of civil servants in the federal ministries.