Why Germany Is Losing Its Best Talent: Inside the Growing Brain Drain

Discover why Germany is losing highly skilled citizens abroad — from job opportunities to political discontent.

Photo by Pascal Meier on Unsplash

More Germans are leaving Germany than at any point in recent decades, driven by a mix of high taxes, housing shortages, weak growth and frustration with politics. According to official migration data, tens of thousands of German citizens now emigrate every year.

I recently came across an interesting article from the year 1923 in the archives of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Titled “Away to freedom!” the report documented a surge in Germans looking to leave the country for a better life abroad.

“A deep longing is coursing through the German people,” the article started. “They want to escape from domestic turmoil, from the hatred and envy that poisons the soul, from the ravages of inflation, and from the oppression of inadequate wages. They dream of countries where they can breathe more freely and live more peacefully.”

Most of those who had set their sights on a better life beyond Germany had bought tickets on steamers headed to the New World. A considerable number were also fleeing to neighbouring European countries like Holland, Switzerland, or Romania.

In 1923, Germany was still shattered by the effects of World War One; it was ravaged by hyper-inflation, and people lived under the constant threat of an anti-democratic coup.

A snippet from a very different era? Not quite...

A modern journalist wouldn’t quite get away with pinching the introduction to that century-old article and republishing it today. But it wouldn’t be totally removed from the truth, either.

One of the great untold stories of Germany today is the scale of German emigration — particularly among highly skilled workers.

Perhaps it is just too hard to compute that the Germany of 2024 could be a country that people would want to leave to “breathe more freely” elsewhere. Perhaps it is too damaging to German self-esteem, and people are engaged in an unconscious attempt to repress it.

How Many Germans Are Leaving — and Who Are They?

I don’t know why no one is talking about it. But it is happening.

Pick any year over the past decade, and you will see that around a quarter of a million German citizens moved abroad. Figures compiled by the OECD show that for every 100,000 Germans, 170 left the country in 2021. That is five times the level of the USA and ten times the level of Japan.

Migration of German citizens to and from Germany. Source: Federal Migration Office

Of course, high emigration doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In the 21st century, a ticket to the New World doesn’t mean saying goodbye to loved ones for good.

Most of those who leave come back sooner or later. Many go abroad for foreign work placements, or to study. Broadening your horizons is a good thing.

But there is more to it than that. Government data shows us an unmistakable trend: tens of thousands more Germans are leaving the country every year than are returning. Cumulatively, over the past decade, Germany lost over half a million of its citizens to emigration.

Why Highly Qualified Germans Are Leaving