Missing Link: The digital mystery
After the Bundestag elections, Germany could have its first independent digital ministry. Whether this will actually achieve anything depends on many factors.
The Reichstagsbundestag reflected in the glass façade of the Lüders-Haus
(Image: Falk Steiner)
What needs to be done to turn Germany from a sleepwalker and latecomer to digitalization into a leading country? How can the potential of –, including in the administration – of beautiful PowerPoint slides, become a reality? How can old processes be redesigned, and not just at the end user interface? Such questions are occupying a large number of politicians, interest groups and think tank employees in Berlin these days, when election programs are being written and candidate decisions are being made on state lists and direct mandates.
When the 21st German Bundestag is elected at the end of February, a fully-fledged, independent digital ministry could be created for the first time. The CDU/CSU and FDP have plans to this effect in the pipeline, and business associations such as Bitkom and Eco are also calling for this more vehemently than ever before. This is because everyone involved is dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. But would everything be better with a digital ministry? The concepts, as far as they are known, have pitfalls – and two of the biggest problems are largely ignored.
Many attempts
The Federal Republic of Germany has made several attempts to give digitalization a higher priority in federal policy. Angela Merkel always considered the topic important and, in these days of public self-interpretation, likes to regret that she was unable to push it forward as Chancellor as she would have liked. In the 16 years of her chancellorship, two models were tried out: in 2014 with a triumvirate. Thomas de Maizière (CDU) as Minister of the Interior was supposed to digitize the administration, Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) as Minister of Economic Affairs was supposed to tame Silicon Valley capitalism and nurture German companies, Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) as Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure was supposed to ensure broadband and mobile communications. The successes were moderate at best, and all three were unfamiliar with the respective issues in their own way. The so-called "Digital Agenda" of the then grand coalition was not exactly ambitious – and was still only partially implemented.
In 2019, Merkel wanted to try something different: All ministries would now be digital ministries. The Chancellery was to coordinate the digital policy projects – Chancellery Minister Helge Braun (CDU) was responsible and in charge of the process, while Minister of State Dorothee Bär (CSU) was to represent the topic externally. "She works for the head of the Chancellery, Helge Braun, without having any decision-making powers of her own," found the Bundestag's Research Service in a status report in April 2021. The Digital Agenda became a "digital strategy" and words such as agility were suddenly used.
A digital cabinet met more frequently before the actual cabinet meeting in which key issues were to be discussed. Merkel was also advised by a "digital council" – whose seriousness was repeatedly questioned. For four years, a small team in the Chancellor's Office attempted to reach consensus across departments. Partly successfully, for example with the Corona-Warn-App, which was largely withdrawn from the Ministry of Health under Jens Spahn (CDU) – because maximum data collection was the premise there. And yet – too little happened. The coronavirus crisis aid was used to push ahead with the Online Access Act, which was intended to promote the digitization of administration, and the Digital Pact for Schools was launched.
New government, new approach
The 2021 traffic light government has once again reorganized the digital sector: Control in the Chancellery was abandoned, now all ministries were really to be digital ministries – and Volker Wissing (then FDP) was given a few specialist departments from other ministries in order to be able to act as digital minister beyond broadband and mobile communications in future. And in many ministries, something to do with digitalization was done when more important things were not a priority. The fact that a joint project was set up with funding from Ukraine probably best describes the state of the traffic light digital policy: Companies and authorities from Ukraine were to be financially supported in sharing their knowledge of digitalization with German authorities and companies.
How many billions of euros have been spent on consultancy contracts for IT projects in recent years? Hard to say. How many projects have actually failed and never been canceled? Hard to determine – but no one claims that the money has been used efficiently and, above all, effectively in recent years, for example in the digitization of administration or the promotion of digital companies.
However, politics as governance is largely a question of organization – a question of bureaucracy, and this is not meant negatively from the outset. It needs powers, usually laws and regulations, in order to be able to act. And money in order to be able to act effectively. Preferably along common standards across the individual departments. This is exactly where the digital budget was supposed to come in 2021: the idea was impressively simple – Each ministry could have received money for projects from this pot, which would have been separate from normal budget items. There would have been criteria for this, such as cross-departmental digitization, open or at least reusable projects that are interoperable with other projects. But apart from the word, there was: Nothing. Because in Germany, each department is in control of its own projects, even if they have to be approved by the cabinet. And so each department continues to digitize its own pillars. And every level.
