Ahead of the Hannover Show the Federal Statistical Office reported that almost one quarter of the German GDP is generated by the manufacturing industry. The respective gross value added amounted to 490 billion Euros in 2006 which corresponds to 24% of total GDP.
In the same period this line of industry employed about 7.4 million people (19% of total German workforce) and paid wages and salaries to the value of about 315 billion Euros (28%).
Within this line of industry mechanical engineering with a share of 15% contributes most to German GDP. On the other hand the field of recycling beares the smalles share of just 0.2%. Compared with the development of the German economy as a whole the performance of the manufacturing industry has been lagging behind for the past three and a half decades. 