Excerpted from the Germany Career Guide

Germany's general business climate remains optimistic. The Mittelstand, Germany's SME business category, which comprises 99.6 percent of all businesses in Germany, employs nearly 80 percent of the working population. German SMEs form the core of Germany's manufacturing and industrial industries.

B2B services are the main driver behind the German business services industry. These services include legal, tax, ICT and management consulting, engineering consulting, research and development businesses, marketing agencies, personnel recruiters, business process outsourcing companies and facility management providers.

Organizations and Trade Associations

Deutscher Marketing-Verband (DMV)
German Marketing Association
http://www.marketingverband.de/ (German)
Deutscher Marketing-Verband, the German Marketing Association, is a professional association for marketing management. The association has more than 13,000 members organized in 65 regional marketing clubs. As a professional association, DMV represents marketing in business and society.

Deutscher Marketing-Verband eV
Königsallee 30
D-40212 Düsseldorf
Tel: +49 (0)211 86 406 0
Fax: +49 (0)211 86 406 40
Email: info@marketingverband.de

Labor Unions

Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft eV (Ver.di)
United Services Trade Union
http://verdi.de/ (German)
Ver.di has more than 2.7 million members in more than 1,000 professions. On March 19, 2001, five German trade unions—the OETV (Oeffentlicher Dienst, Transport und Verkehr) for the public and transport sector, the HBV (Handel, Banken und Versicherungen) for the commercial, bank and insurance sector, the DPG (Deutsche Post-Gewerkschaft) for the postal sector, the IG Medien (Industriegewerkschaft Medien) for the media sector and the DAG (Deutsche Angestellten-Gewerkschaft) for white-collar worker—merged to form Ver.di. This union is divided into 13 specialist areas, including Section Nine, which specializes in telecommunications, information technology and data processing.

Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft
Paula-Thiede-ufer 10
D-10179 Berlin
Tel: +49 (0)30 6956 0
Fax: +49 (0)30 6956 3141
Email: info@verdi.de

Publications

Financial Times Deutschland
Financial Times Germany
http://www.ftd.de (German)
The Financial Times Deutschland (Financial Times Germany) provides up-to-date and accurate information about the financial sector, strongly drawing from the vast information reservoir of its British parent. Financial Times Deutschland coverage extends to politics and society, enterprise and industries, technology and media, and stock exchange news and markets.

Financial Times Deutschland
Stubbenhuk 3
D-20459 Hamburg
Tel: +49 (0)40 31990 0
Fax: +49 (0)40 31990 310
Email: kundenservice@ftd.de

This is just a short sample of what you’ll find in over 100 pages of information in the complete Germany Guide.