Insolvency of pme Familienservice Bremen gGmbH: City of Bremen suspends payment

On Thursday, December 18, 2025, a meeting took place with the State Secretary to the Senator for Children and Education (SKB), Jennifer Müller-Wilckens, the insolvency administrator Prof. Dr. Torsten Martini, and pme Managing Director Alexa Ahmad. The city made it clear that the funding conditions apply equally to all providers. Proportional financing of unoccupied places and review of the revocation of index status are excluded. No statement was made regarding the possible elimination of the provider's contribution to the total costs. A follow-up meeting is planned.

The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is planning an expression of interest procedure to find one or more operators for the continued operation of the pme facilities. At the end of this procedure, SKB will select the operator(s) with the involvement of the municipal committees.

At the same time, the insolvency administrator is looking for one or more buyers and examining various options. A solution is to be found by mid-February 2026 in order to avoid insolvency proceedings being opened on March 1, 2026. SKB will be involved as soon as suitable interested parties have been found.

For pme Familienservice , participation in an expression of interest procedure Familienservice not Familienservice possible under the conditions mentioned, as the structural underfunding remains and loss-free operation would not be possible for pme.

On a positive note, SKB is confident that a solution will be found quickly in the planned proceedings. The provisional insolvency administrator aims to reach a solution for continued operation by mid-February 2026.

pme will continue to support the process constructively and ensure the day-to-day operation of the facilities as best as possible. We ask parents and our employees to remain loyal to the facilities and thus secure their future.

A provisional insolvency administrator has been appointed today for pme Familienservice gGmbH. The management has already held initial constructive talks with the insolvency administrator to childcare centers the smooth continuation of operations at the childcare centers .

We are pleased to announce that all employees' salaries were paid on December 1, 2025. Parents and employees therefore have no cause for concern—the childcare centers continue childcare centers as usual. We would like to thank our employees for their loyalty and dedication to the children and parents!

Correction of the presentation in the Weser-Kurier of November 24, 2025

pme Familienservice Bremen gGmbH comments on the statements made by Senator Mark Rackles (SPD)

"Therefore, there can be no question of the authority having "abruptly" stopped its payments to the provider. However, PME was not even in a position to provide the exact number of children cared for there and the respective scope of care."

in the Weser-Kurier on November 24, 2025 as follows:

Month-long exchange with the city of Bremen

As already outlined in our press release of 20 November 2025, we have repeatedly pointed out to the city that the continued operation of the childcare centers by pme can no longer be financially secured unless the main causes of the structural underfunding are eliminated. There was no mention of an impending payment freeze on the part of the city. This is comprehensively documented in the email correspondence with the City of Bremen following the meeting on October 10, 2025.

Provisional suspension of payments by the city and conditions

In its decision dated November 11, 2025 (received by pme on November 18, 2025), the City of Bremen announced without any prior notice that it would have to temporarily suspend payments. The conditions for a resumption of payments were stated:

1. provision of the number of children cared for and the scope of care

This condition surprised us, as the city of Bremen can view both pieces of information at any time via the figures maintained by pme in the city's childcare center. Nevertheless, we requested the number of children currently being cared for from all childcare center and provided this information to the city on 21 November 2025 within the deadline. The number of childcare places was also submitted on November 22, 2025.

As already mentioned: Both pieces of information are available to the city at any time via the childcare center.

2. provision of a reliable positive going concern forecast

However, pme was unable to fulfill this second condition, as we had been in contact with the city for months for precisely this reason. A positive continuation forecast until 31.12.2026 would only be possible if the city had eliminated the main negative factors, such as

• Withdrawal of the demand for a carrier's own share
• Assumption of the rental costs for St.-Jürgen-Straße
• Subsequent reimbursement of ancillary real estate cost settlements and index increases
• Complete processing of all unaudited where-used lists since 2019

Conclusion

The statement that pme was not in a position to provide basic information is incorrect. The required occupancy figures were known to the city at all times and were nevertheless submitted on time.

The requirement for a reliable going concern forecast could not be met because this is dependent on the elimination of the negative factors mentioned above. Without binding commitments from the city, the management was unable to prepare such a forecast.

Due to the sudden suspension of payments by the city, the management of pme Familienservice Bremen gGmbH had to file for insolvency because although the company's liquid funds would have been sufficient to pay the salaries of the employees for the month of November, the funds for the payment of personnel, rent and ancillary costs would no longer have been sufficient without the payments from the city by December at the latest.

Following the cessation of subsidies by the City of Bremen, pme Familienservice Bremen gGmbh files for insolvency at 12:38.

As requested in the grant notification dated 11.11.2025 (received on 18.11.2025), we are providing you with the current occupancy figures for the individual childcare centers [...].

On November 20, 2025, the City of Bremen published a press release on the insolvency that contained several serious factual errors. We are setting the record straight:

FALSE: The press release of the City of Bremen consistently refers to "pme Familienservice GmbH" and mentions Frankfurt as its headquarters. [Corrected on 21.05.2025.]

CORRECT: Only pme Familienservice Bremen gGmbH - an independent subsidiary - is affected. pme Familienservice GmbH (parent company based in Berlin) is NOT affected by the insolvency. The pme Familienservice Group is financially sound and remains a reliable partner.

FALSE: The City of Bremen claims that pme informed it of the insolvency application on November 20, 2025.

CORRECT: We already informed the City of Bremen in a personal telephone conversation on November 19, 2025 that the withdrawal of the provisional funding decision that had already been issued would force us to file for insolvency because it was foreseeable that we would be unable to pay and we were therefore legally obliged to file for insolvency.

FALSE: The City of Bremen speaks of "around 400 daycare places".

CORRECT: pme Familienservice Bremen gGmbH currently looks after 429 children and provides a total of 540 childcare places.

We have asked the City of Bremen to correct this immediately.