Unternehmertum: Unterschiedliche Facetten selbstständiger Berufstätigkeit[Entrepreneurship: Diverse aspects of self-employment]

During the last two decades the evolution of self-employment in Germany has been characterized by a slow increase after the numbers had declined over a period of several decades. Analysing portraits and conditions of this increase in greater detail, a more differentiated picture emerges. It becomes clear that especially the group of those actors who work as self-employed people without further employees in micro firms is growing significantly. These one-(wo)man-firms are a substantial part of the recent revival of the category of self-employment. Additionally and with respect to economic sectors, working times and incomes, the enormous heterogeneity of the category of entrepreneurship becomes evident. The span reaches from best privileged positions in the system of society all the way down to positions that are very close to the poverty line. The phenomenon of multiple jobs and hybrid employment contracts is also under discussion.