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According to the authors of the study, if the calculations were correct, household wealth in Germany would be significantly higher than previously assumed
Photo: Patrick Pleul/ dpa
In times of crisis, the different distribution of wealth and assets seems particularly noticeable - inflation, for example, affects people to different degrees.
Around 27 percent of all wealth in Germany belongs to one percent of German households, according to a study by wealth researchers Moritz Schularick, Thilo Albers and Charlotte Bartels, about whom the three write in the "FAZ".
It was therefore not possible to say with certainty whether the gap between rich and poor is widening.
The data is not solid - which also has to do with the German history of the last 150 years.
"It therefore took a long-term research project to trace the development of wealth and its distribution in Germany from 1895 to the present for the first time," write the authors from the University of Bonn, the Berlin Humboldt University and the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). .
»4000 billion euros richer than expected«
If calculated correctly, however, household wealth in Germany would be significantly higher than previously assumed, they write.
"If you measure business assets according to international standards and also use the more recent figures from the Bundesbank for real estate prices, then Germany is a good 4,000 billion euros richer than expected." This roughly corresponds to the entire annual production of goods and services in Germany.
The average household wealth is around 420,000 euros, the authors write.
The median household, i.e. exactly the middle of all household assets, is 120,000 euros.
The reason for the difference, according to the report, is the unequal distribution of it - large fortunes at the top would greatly increase the average value.
»The rich have not escaped the middle class«
"Germany is considerably richer than the official statistics show," the Handelsblatt quotes the authors as saying.
However, the unrecorded wealth can be found "only among the better-off half of the population," writes the newspaper.
Compared to historical fluctuations, the share of the richest hundredth or thousandth of the population in total assets has risen in recent decades, but not very pronounced.
“So the rich have not escaped the middle class, which holds almost all the rest of the wealth.”
Wealth in the bottom half has stagnated since 1990
All in all, the top half has doubled their assets after adjusting for inflation since 1990, while the bottom half has stagnated, the Handelsblatt continues.
The income share of the bottom half fell from 30 percent in the 1960s to 25 percent in the 1980s, making it more difficult for them to build up wealth through savings.
Meanwhile, since around 2010, the middle class has been benefiting from the steep rise in real estate prices, which is the most important asset class for them.
The widening wealth gap between the top half of society, where the value of stock and real estate assets have risen sharply in recent decades, and the bottom half, where wealth has stagnated over the past 40 years, is significant, the economists said.
Albers, Bartels and Schularick come to the conclusion that the falling share of the bottom 50 percent in total wealth and corresponding concepts for wealth accumulation for low-income households deserve more social attention from this perspective than largely unfounded concerns about a growing concentration of wealth at the top.
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