According to unanimous opinion, Mittelstand companies are characterized primarily by the fact that ownership and management of the company lies in one hand. But in empirical research and almost all reports that deal with the actual size and importance of Mittelstand firms, these firms are equated with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The reason for this is that Mittelstand companies cannot be appropriately identified based on official data. As a result, almost all empirical research on Mittelstand businesses is in fact research on small and medium-sized companies. In order to avoid this dilemma, three special questions were integrated into the ifo business survey, which allow Mittelstand companies to be properly identified. The results show that, as expected, the SME quota greatly overstates the Mittelstand quota. With special questions, the ifo Institute’s data now offers the opportunity to provide new impulses for empirical Mittelstand research and thus overcome the dilemma described.