This paper is a first attempt to analyse the implications of the 2000 corporate tax reform on ownership concentration in Germany. The empirical results document a fall in ownership concentration and a decrease in the power of top institutional owners including the big banks. The description of German corporate governance as a bank-based system may hence no longer apply. However, contrary to what was expected by proponents of the reform, the corporate tax reform did not revolutionise German corporate governance. Ownership concentration in 2005 is still high compared to the Anglo-American economies and an active market for corporate control is not observed.