End for Federal Data Atlas: 25-million-euro grave of admin digitalization

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The project sounded promising for German bureaucracy: with the "Federal Data Atlas", the federal government wanted to launch a central metadata portal online. It was intended to help civil servants and employees in ministries find, link, and efficiently use internal data treasures. The initiative stemmed from the executive's data strategy. For several years, the Bundesdruckerei (Federal Printing Office) had been leading the development on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF). However, the start of 2026 marks the premature end of the once prestigious project.

As Netzpolitik.org reports, the portal was quietly shut down. On the Bundesdruckerei website, only information about it is still available, but no functionalities. While the Bundesdruckerei and the Ministry of Finance deny any further responsibility, German administrative digitalization faces the ruins of a multi-million euro project. What remains are high costs and political helplessness.

Technical Standard of 1986

The Bundesdruckerei continues to praise the tool as modern, sovereign, and AI-capable. However, an independent expert report from November revealed a different reality. David Zellhöfer, professor at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin, had subjected the system to a detailed examination. His conclusion was a slap in the face for the developers: in many parts, the portal did not even meet the state of the art from 1986.

The list of deficiencies, compiled by the expert based on insights from administration and analyses, is long. According to the report, the Data Atlas lacked elementary search functions that are now standard for any simple web application. There was no exploratory search that offered suggestions or worked associatively. Anyone who wanted to find something had to know exactly what the desired dataset was called beforehand – a "directed search" that is of little use in everyday work.

Furthermore, according to Zellhöfer, the IT tool did not have controlled vocabularies. Since documents were not cataloged according to uniform keywords, even simple typos led to important information remaining undiscoverable in the depths of the system. Even basic logical search operators such as "AND", "OR", or "NOT" were, according to the expert, only usable to a very limited extent.

Secrecy and Legal Threats

Instead of addressing the technical criticism, the Bundesdruckerei and the Ministry of Finance initially remained stubborn. As Netzpolitik.org writes, the Data Atlas was still treated almost like a state secret in December. With the argument that the portal was not intended for the public, the parties involved tried to nip criticism in the bud. The Bundesdruckerei even went so far as to consider legal action against Zellhöfer because his report had not been officially commissioned.

The professor subsequently expressed his "speechlessness" to heise online: he had written a report pro bono – and immediately received threats of legal action. The Bundesdruckerei had not sought direct contact with him at all. The "unreliable sources" complained about by the company included "employees of the federal administration, screenshots from the production system, and scientific literature from the 1960s onwards."

Only when public pressure increased, also through Zellhöfer's posts, did a half-hearted concession follow. The Bundesdruckerei suddenly claimed that the criticized deficiencies had already been rectified in the second half of 2025. This does not quite align with the BMF's statement that development was officially completed in the first quarter of 2025. In any case, no one wants to be responsible today. The contractual relationship between the Bundesdruckerei and the ministry ended on December 31, 2025, with which operations were also discontinued.

Expensive Legacy with No Taker

The financial dimension of the failure is explosive. While initial estimates assumed costs of around 2.3 million euros, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Finance told netzpolitik.org a significantly higher figure: around 24.6 million euros had flowed into the Data Atlas since its inception. Anonymous sources from the project's environment suspect that the actual expenses could be far higher.

For this double-digit million euro sum, the taxpayer receives a shut-down system that no one wants to take over. The Ministry of Digital Affairs (BMDS), which is actually responsible for state modernization, gave the project a clear rejection. Taking it over in its current state was simply "not economically viable." After intensive examination, it became clear that the tool was hardly used despite high investments and required massive improvements.

While the BMDS emphasizes that the findings gained in the project are to be considered in future endeavors so that the investments made are not completely lost. It remains unclear whether and when a new, functional metadata portal for the federal administration will come. For now, the Federal Data Atlas serves as a cautionary example of how a lack of transparency, outdated technology, and political turf wars can slow down the digitalization of the state.

(mho)