Ironically, you're trying to apply a German mindset to the entire European market. That doesn't really work either. In the sense that Mittelstand is more than

Ironically, you're trying to apply a German mindset to the entire European market. That doesn't really work either. In the sense that Mittelstand is more than just SMEs, I don't think it ever really existed here. There's no cultural fascination with being a middle business or having a family-owned business. A similar word ("middenstand") was used a lot, but it referred to shops only. In American TLA-speak: SMEs with a D2C model. The term "middenstand" died a slow death in the last 25 years. It's rarely used nowadays. Good riddance too. The whole term reaks of limited social mobility. In Dutch "stand" has a much stronger feudal vibe than "klasse".