Abstract
What impact did the Federal Constitutional Court’s 2023 ruling on the 2021 supplementary budget, and thus on the application of the debt brake, have on public investment in Germany? This article shows that the ruling had only a moderate negative impact on the federal budget, where planned investments fell by €1.2 billion. However, the consequences for the Climate and Transformation Fund were significantly more pronounced. Even more importantly, proportionally higher savings were made on investments than on consumptive government spending. This means that the alleged “spending prioritisation of future investments” did not occur.