This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU and in Germany.

German mechanical and plant engineering makes an important contribution to this by providing and using energy efficient technologies.

The Forum Energy also acts as a voice for the investment goods industry and represents the interests of mechanical and plant engineering towards policymakers and the public.

Social and economic policy – Mechanical and plant engineering is the largest industrial employer in Germany, with more than one million employees.

VDMA's core activities therefore include analysis, commenting and discussion of social and economic policy issues.

[2] Profession and training – VDMA is involved in activities relating to apprenticeships, degree programs and professional qualifications.

The idea behind Blue Competence is to show that sustainable business can be a great help to both customers and producers in mechanical engineering.

The portal offers a nationwide overview of job listings in mechanical engineering, and gives the around 3,200 VDMA members a handy tool that helps them find new talent.

The aim is to lower high drop-out rates and help make more engineers available on the labor market.

It has its origin in the Verein Rheinisch-Westfälischer Maschinenbauanstalten, which was founded two years earlier and aimed to improve delivery and price conditions for mining and plant machinery in particular.

[4] In 1934, a year after the Nazis seized power, the new government adopted the “Gesetz zur Vorbereitung des organischen Aufbaus der deutschen Wirtschaft” (Law detailing the organic construction of the German economy).

As part of this process, all business associations were united under one central management system and answerable to the Reich's Minister of Economic Affairs.

At the end of the war, the Wirtschaftsvereinigung Maschinenbau (business association for mechanical engineering, WVMA) was founded.

In 1954, VDMA took part in founding the Europe Liaison Group of the European Mechanical, Electrical, Electronic and Metalworking Industries (Orgalime) in Brussels, Belgium.