Folklore has it that the comparatively low proportion of self-employed in Germany in in part due to a habit that might be termed "stigmatisation of failure": taking a second chance to build one's own firm after failing as a self-employed person is said to be much more difficult here than in other countries. This paper uses data from a large recent survey in ten German planning regions to document that 18% of today's firm owners founded a firm in the past that went out of business, and that 8% of people whose former firm went out of business are actively engaged in starting a new business today...