Over the past decade, Germany became one of the largest shipowning nations in the world (specifically, it is presently the no. 4, after Greece, China and Japan). One of the reasons why this happened was the influx of capital into newbuildings, driven forward by the funding model that became popular beginning around 2004. Single ship companies (Kommanditgesellschaften, or limited partnerships) coupled with the tonnage tax, which allowed flat-rate assessment of a ship's profitability on the basis of its carriage capacity, rather than on the basis of its actual generated revenue, made ship investments highly desirable.

At its peak, ca. 440,000 investors had sunk their teeth into such KGs by purchasing shares of single ship limited partnerships. This made them part owners (i.e. limited partners) of an individual vessel, so they were able to fully participate in the vessel's profits whilst their liability was limited to the value of their share, § 171 subsec. 1 German HGB (Commercial Code). At the same time, the tax treatment of the vessel was independent of the actual revenues - as discussed above, the tonnage of the vessel was the basis for a low flat-rate tax.