Think of entrepreneurship in the US and you think of Nasdaq. In London, there is the Alternative Investment Market. But Germany's ability to commercialise its innovations is bound up with the public relations disaster of the Neuer Markt, the defunct high-technology exchange that boomed and went bust between 1997 and 2003.

At its peak in 2001, the Neuer Markt boasted 345 companies and a market capitalisation of €234bn (£161.5bn). But by 2003, the handful of companies that remained were being transferred to the main market, leaving Germany with no stock market segment tailored for entrepreneurs.