Even though Germany is one of the world’s most powerful economies, (relative) child poverty is a longstanding issue. Over the last couple of decades, the German government has introduced various measures to tackle it. However, one in five children in Germany is still considered poor. In this paper, I will look at the numbers of children and adolescents that are affected by poverty and explain what it means to grow up poor in Germany. I’ll then make the case for a new proposal that aims to ensure that all children and adolescents have a socially inclusive standard of living. The proposal, developed jointly by the project ‘Family and Education: Creating Child-Centered Policies’ of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, an expert advisory panel and a Young Expert Team, aims at drastically reducing the number of children, adolescents and their families in Germany who are affected by poverty.