# Business interruption insurance in Germany: keeping the business alive after a loss > Business interruption insurance pays your lost profit and ongoing costs when an insured physical loss stops or slows down your business. In Germany it is called Betriebsunterbrechungsversicherung, often shortened to BU, which is easy to confuse with the personal disability insurance of the same abbreviation. The concept is close to UK gross profit cover, the details are German. Quelle/Source: https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-business-interruption.php Updated: 2026-09-18 ## What does business interruption insurance pay in Germany? It pays the operating profit you lose and the fixed costs that keep running, such as salaries, rent, leasing and interest, while the business is interrupted after insured physical damage. Typical triggers are fire, water from pipes, storm or burglary on your premises. Payments run until the business is back to normal or the indemnity period ends, usually after twelve months. Losses without physical damage, such as illness or a weak market, are not covered. ## At a glance - **Mandatory?:** No - **Pays:** Lost operating profit plus continuing fixed costs - **Trigger:** Insured physical damage at your premises - **Indemnity period:** Usually 12 months, 18 or 24 available - **Note on the name:** BU also means disability insurance in German, check which one is meant ## No physical damage, no claim German business interruption cover follows property damage. If your premises burn down, the policy pays. If your only supplier burns down, the power grid fails or the authorities close your restaurant for hygiene reasons, the standard policy does not, because nothing of yours was damaged. Extensions exist for suppliers and customers (Rückwirkungsschäden), for failure of public utilities and, as a separate product, for closure orders under the Infection Protection Act (Betriebsschließungsversicherung). The pandemic court cases in Germany showed how much depends on the exact wording of such cover. ## Setting the sum insured The sum insured is your expected operating profit plus fixed costs for one year, or for the full indemnity period if it is longer. Your tax adviser (Steuerberater) can derive it from the profit and loss account: turnover minus variable costs such as materials and goods purchased. Use expected figures, not last year's. A growing company insured on historic numbers is underinsured, and the proportional reduction under § 75 VVG applies here too. Good wordings waive underinsurance up to a margin or refund premium if the actual figure turns out lower. ## How long is long enough? The indemnity period starts on the day of the loss. Twelve months is often enough for an office that can move to temporary space. A manufacturer with its own building and special machinery with long delivery times may need 18 or 24 months, plus time to win back customers. Smaller businesses often buy a simple version inside their contents policy (Klein-BU), where the business interruption sum equals the contents sum. That is cheap and convenient, but check whether that figure matches your real annual profit and costs. ## What is covered - Lost operating profit during the interruption - Continuing costs such as salaries, rent, leasing and interest - Interruption after fire, lightning or explosion - Interruption after water, storm, hail or burglary, if agreed - Costs to reduce the loss, such as temporary premises - Extra costs of keeping the business running - Losses caused by damage at named suppliers or customers, if included ## What is not covered - Losses without physical damage, such as recession, strikes or illness - Closures ordered by authorities for infection control - Cyber incidents without physical damage - Machinery breakdown unless machinery interruption is added - Delays caused by lack of funds for rebuilding - Contractual penalties owed to customers ## Who needs it - Manufacturers relying on machinery that cannot be replaced quickly - Trade businesses with a workshop and staff - Restaurants and hotels with high fixed costs - Retailers with long commercial leases - Medical practices and laboratories ## Who can do without - Freelancers without premises, whose bigger risk is their own illness ## What it costs The premium follows the sum insured, the indemnity period and the fire risk of your business. A small business interruption element inside a contents policy costs far less than a standalone policy. There are no reliable published price ranges. **What drives the premium:** - Sum insured: profit plus fixed costs - Length of the indemnity period - Type of business and fire risk - Dependence on key machines, suppliers or customers - Perils included and extensions - Time deductible, for example the first 24 or 48 hours _Premiums depend too much on sum and business type for meaningful averages. Your premium is known once we have a quote._ ## The policy levels on the market - **Small BU inside the contents policy:** Sum equal to the contents sum, twelve months, same perils. Simple and often sufficient for small firms. - **Standalone fire and multi-peril BU:** Own sum from your accounts, indemnity period of your choice, water, storm and burglary included. - **All risks BU with dependencies:** Covers interruptions from any non-excluded damage, plus suppliers, customers and utilities. ## How to recognise a good policy | Criterion | Minimum standard | Strong policy | Why it matters | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Indemnity period | 12 months | 18 to 24 months or based on recovery time | Rebuilding and regaining customers often takes more than a year. | | Underinsurance waiver | none | waiver up to an agreed margin | Growth quickly makes last year's figures too low. | | Supplier and customer extension | excluded | named and unnamed suppliers and customers | Many businesses stop because someone else has a fire. | | Public utilities | excluded | power, gas, water and telecoms with a sub-limit | A fire at a substation can stop a whole industrial estate. | | Extra costs | only loss mitigation costs | own limit for temporary premises and outsourcing | Staying operational keeps customers from leaving. | | Time deductible | several days | 24 to 48 hours at most | For short interruptions, the deductible decides whether anything is paid. | ## Insurers on the German market Business interruption in Germany is written by the same property insurers that cover contents and buildings, often in the same contract. Larger sums and supply chain covers are the domain of industrial and broker-focused insurers. This list is a market overview. - **Allianz**: BU as extension or standalone - **AXA**: commercial property with BU options - **HDI**: Talanx group, mid-sized firms and professions - **R+V**: mid-market customers - **Zurich**: commercial and industrial customers - **Helvetia**: property and engineering lines through brokers - **Mannheimer**: part of the Continentale group, trade-specific schemes - **HDI Global**: industrial insurer of the Talanx group 95 insurers supervised by BaFin, the German regulator, are licensed for this class of insurance. (Finanzielle Verluste, Gewinnausfall). Source: BaFin company database, retrieved 2026-09-18. Insurers from other EU countries selling through a branch or without a German office are not included. ## Typical claims and who pays - **Fire shuts the workshop for 8 months** (six figures, more for larger firms): Physical damage on your premises, followed by lost profit and running costs: the textbook claim. - **Sole supplier's plant burns down** (weeks or months of lost sales): No damage at your site means no claim under basic cover. Supplier extensions (Rückwirkungsschäden) close that gap. - **Grid failure across the business park** (a few thousand euros a day, depending on size): Strong policies add public utility failure, capped and usually after a waiting period. - **Rebuild takes 20 months, not 12** (eight months without cover): A twelve month indemnity period simply ends. With 24 months the remaining time is covered. - **Health authority closes the kitchen** (days or weeks of revenue): No physical damage, no business interruption claim. Closure orders need separate closure insurance. - **Police cordon after fire next door** (a few days of lost trade): Your premises are intact, so basic cover does not pay. Some wordings include denial of access for a short period. ## Myth or truth - „Premiums for business interruption cover are tax deductible in Germany." ✔ Yes, they are a business expense. The flip side: any payout counts as business income and is taxed. - „A business interruption payout is tax free because it replaces a loss." ✘ No, it replaces profit and costs, and profit is taxable. Plan for that when you look at cash flow after a loss. - „The indemnity period ends when you reopen." ✘ No, it runs from the date of the loss for the agreed period. Lower sales after reopening are still covered until it ends. - „The insurer compares your result with what you would have earned, not with last year." ✔ True, the benchmark is the expected result without the loss, including growth and seasonality. Clean monthly figures make that easy to show. - „Working from temporary premises reduces your payout, so it pays to wait." ✘ Wrong. You are obliged to limit the loss, and the insurer pays the extra costs of temporary premises as far as they reduce the interruption. ## Common mistakes - Confusing Betriebsunterbrechung with Berufsunfähigkeit, both abbreviated BU - Insuring last year's figures in a fast-growing business - Choosing twelve months when special machinery takes a year to arrive - Expecting cover for illness of the owner or official closures - Adding flood to the property policy but not to business interruption ## FAQ ### Is BU in Germany the same as disability insurance? No, the abbreviation is used for both. Betriebsunterbrechungsversicherung protects the business after physical damage. Berufsunfähigkeitsversicherung is personal income protection if you can no longer work in your profession. Always check which one a document refers to. ### Does business interruption pay if I am ill? Standard German business interruption does not, because there is no physical damage. For practices and small firms there are separate products that cover fixed costs during the owner's illness, sometimes called Praxisausfallversicherung. ### Are my employees' salaries covered? Yes, salaries are continuing costs and are paid as long as employment continues. That means you can keep your team through the interruption and restart with the same people. ### Does it cover a power cut? Only if insured damage on your premises caused it or failure of public utilities has been added. A general grid failure without damage at your site is not covered by the standard wording. ### What records do I need for a claim? Management accounts, previous years' figures, current monthly results and order books. The insurer compares expected and actual results. Clean, up-to-date bookkeeping speeds up settlement considerably. ### Was COVID-19 covered by business interruption in Germany? Not under standard property-based business interruption, since there was no physical damage. Disputes concerned separate business closure policies, and the outcome depended on the exact wording. New closure policies are now worded much more narrowly. ### Can I choose a longer indemnity period later? Yes, at renewal or by agreement during the year, subject to the insurer's approval and an adjusted sum insured. It cannot be extended after a loss has happened. ### Does a cyber attack trigger business interruption cover? Not under the property-based policy, because data encryption is not physical damage. Cyber insurance includes its own business interruption section for that case. ## Legal basis and sources - [Insurance Contract Act (VVG, German)](https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/vvg_2008/) - [BaFin company database (licensed insurers)](https://portal.mvp.bafin.de/database/InstInfo/) ## Request quotes We obtain quotes and come back with a comparison. Free of charge and without obligation: the insurer pays our commission. You can write in English. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-business-interruption.php#anfrage --- NAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH, insurance broker licensed under section 34d(1) of the German Trade Regulation Act, broker register no. D-C08Q-TOSD4-37. For boat and yacht insurance we act as underwriting agency, not as broker. NAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH, Karl-Marx-Straße 4, 15711 Königs Wusterhausen, +49 3375 29 12 77, info@nammert.com. Wikidata: Q141141479.