Germany Stack 2.0: From Abstract Foundation to Digital Operating System

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The prestigious political project Germany Stack, intended to form an important foundation for a technologically sovereign Federal Republic, is moving beyond purely conceptual considerations. Following a broad participation from industry and civil society in the autumn that set initial course, the Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernization (BMDS) is now presenting an updated overall picture.

The new sketch from Friday shows extensive further development compared to the initial draft from October. While the original version was heavily influenced by abstract goals such as "European sovereignty" and general "reusability," the current document reads like a technical and strategic requirements specification for a modern state operating system.

A direct comparison with the old, significantly shorter version of the "overall picture" makes it clear that the federal government has responded to the criticism from the first participation round. For instance, a few months ago, the focus was vaguely on "reusable technical building blocks" and a general connection to approaches like "Government-as-a-Platform." The current draft is much more firmly anchored in the political realities of the new legislative period.

AI Agents Are to Help

The new overall picture, for example, explicitly builds on the modernization agenda of the federal and state governments, as well as on resolutions from the Conference of Digital Ministers and the IT Planning Council. This brings political commitment to the forefront: The federal government intends to provide and mandatorily define the platform core, and to ensure a central cloud hosting offering in order to overcome previous lock-in effects and the federal patchwork.

The expansion of Artificial Intelligence has been added to the planned tech stack. While the first version only mentioned AI peripherally, the update focuses on hyped approaches like Agentic AI. This goes beyond simple language models to autonomous agents that are intended to communicate with each other via standardized protocols such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP) or the Autonomous Agent Protocol (ANP).

This "Agent-to-Agent" (A2A) approach marks a paradigm shift: In the future, the administration is not only intended to offer digital forms but also to act proactively through networked, intelligent systems. This is complemented by a focus on semantic technologies, whose task is to ensure uniform data interpretation across all federal levels.

More Open Source

The new version defines guidelines such as "API-First," "DevSecOps by Default," and the principle of "Made in EU" for market solutions. In addition, there is a prioritization: in-house developments are to be implemented primarily as open source. When purchasing market solutions, European providers are to be preferred, provided they meet the sovereignty criteria.

In this way, the ministry addresses, at least in part, a demand from the Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA). The association had previously warned against the D-Stack degenerating into a vehicle for "sovereignty washing" by proprietary software providers. In their statements, the OSBA and the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) demanded that true digital sovereignty necessarily presupposes the four freedoms of free software. The outcome is that open source is at least to be enshrined as the primary solution for the platform core and integration elements.

Despite the technical refinement, organizational hurdles remain. State Secretary for Digital Affairs Markus Richter emphasizes that with a second consultation round, the executive branch is taking an important step towards interoperable administration and is deliberately seeking open dialogue. However, industry urges for swift action.

The industry association Bitkom, while praising the pace and the inclusion of external expertise so far, simultaneously calls for a binding obligation for states and municipalities to use the stack. Only if the federal infrastructure actually integrates the components can a real acceleration of administrative digitalization be achieved. The D-Stack must not remain an optional buffet but must become the common technical basis.

Second Consultation Phase Underway

Structurally, the BMDS has divided the overall picture into four strategic pillars: excellent user experience for citizens and businesses, a stable platform core as a foundation, the consistent use of AI and data, and the safeguarding of digital sovereignty. The department admits that the criteria so far lacked the level of detail suitable for automated compliance processes. Instead, the benchmarks have been consolidated to essential points to provide clear guidance for now. Work is ongoing on the technical linking of individual standards.

By 2028, concrete offerings are to be available for all federal levels. The path to this leads via the Marketplace Germany Digital and the portal for the German administrative cloud, which are to function as central "managed service platforms."

With the final consultation phase, which runs until March 31st and has now begun, the D-Stack faces its first practical test. It remains to be seen whether the ambitious plans for agent AI and open interfaces will fall on receptive ears and survive the impact with federal reality.

(vbr)