Star deaths in Germany?

Media reports about the alleged death of fine dining restaurants in Germany are currently on the rise - indeed, reports about closures and concept changes seem to be increasing. But does the list of individual cases of closures and concept changes correspond to the statistical facts? In view of the steadily rising total number of Michelin-starred restaurants in Germany, it is not surprising that more restaurants are closing.

Restaurant-Ranglisten.de has analysed the development since the Michelin Guide 2012. According to this, an average of 7.94 per cent of all Michelin-starred restaurants have lost their stars completely every year since then. This figure was slightly exceeded in the 2024 Guide, at 8.08 per cent, 0.13 percentage points above this long-term average. In the 2023 Michelin Guide, as many as 8.6 per cent of starred restaurants were stripped of all their stars.

The highest proportion of star deletions compared to the previous year occurred in 2013, 2019 and 2020, when more than nine per cent of starred restaurants lost their stars completely. By far the lowest proportion of devaluations was recorded in 2012, the first year of the statistics, at 4.9 per cent, followed by 6.5 per cent in 2022.

For the statistics, the number of stars withdrawn was set in relation to the total number of stars in the respective previous year - regardless of the reason for the star withdrawal. Devaluations in which the restaurants retained at least one star were not taken into account.