The 7 biggest German companies by revenue are a big portion of what keeps Germany afloat as the economic force it is. The country is popular in a lot of ways (some of which you can see on our list of 10 crazy facts about Germany). However, many people don't really see the economic prowess of the country. In fact, Germany is the largest economic force in all Europe and estimated to be the fourth largest in the world by nominal GDP. The country reported staggering numbers about their trade surplus which effectively made it the biggest capital exporter globally. Even so, Germany's economy is also fueled by the huge availability and variety of natural resources the country has. The public services sector there is also very developed and brings in a huge portion of their annual GDP.
Furthermore, Germany's success can be traced in part to the fact that ninety-nine percent of its companies belong to a class comprised of small to middle-sized enterprises which are often family-owned. This model gives people the ability to start and develop their own business which has a safe, yet competitive environment to evolve in. On the other hand, Germany is also home to some of the largest corporations in the world. These giants include all the items on this list, including Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes, which are automotive companies with worldwide markets and popularity.
However, with that much going on, Germany is also among the top five biggest consumers of energy in the world. Also being Europe's most electricity demanding country, measures to increase and establish a reliable network of reusable and fully "green" electricity sources have been in effect since the 70's. Germany aims to satisfy all their energy requirements from renewable sources by the not-so-distant 2050.