Missing Link: The real test is yet to come

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For years it was discussed, and a year ago it was then – surprisingly – introduced: the Digital Ministry. More precisely, the “Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernization” – which already gives a hint as to how the department was conceived. But what has been achieved after one year, and where is the Merz government digitally politically in the red?

When Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz pulled Karsten Wildberger out of his hat almost a year ago, a large part of the Berlin journalists wondered: Who? Wildberger was the head of Ceconomy, the group behind the Saturn and Mediamarkt brands. An electronics retailer with a branch network and online shop. Can such a person handle federal politics? A manager in the ministry?

One thing can be stated after a year: Karsten Wildberger has not failed so far. He joined the CDU, and bravely stuck to his manuscripts at the beginning, which were written for him in the ministry and which he continued to work on at weekends at his fiber-optic-free home. Diligent and ambitious, these are the pair of words that repeatedly come up from his circle, from coalition and also from opposition politicians. He is different from most ministers in the black-red federal government. Wildberger is, and this is usually meant positively, deeply immersed in the topics.

As a long-time manager in the telecommunications industry, he is familiar with many details that previous ministers responsible for fiber optics and mobile communications received extensive documents about, and in the end did not always understand everything. And in other areas of responsibility, such as data usage and AI, the trained physicist is more deeply involved than all previous ministers. And when it comes to agent AI, the minister's eyes light up when he starts talking about how he experiments with it and what AI will mean for humanity.

Therefore, according to people from his newly assembled ministry, it now works the other way around: The minister requests further information from the specialist level, defines timelines, feature requests, and key performance indicators himself. When Wildberger says “KPI”, it doesn't sound like it's read from a consultant's slide. Wildberger means measurable successes. He is a person who thinks in product processes. And if that means the minister wants to discuss the status with the responsible department head, that is also normal for Wildberger. According to civil servant circles, Wildberger cannot do anything with long reporting lines. For example, they can proceed as follows: The specialist writes the status report to the department head, which is given to the deputy department head for forwarding to the department head. That person presents the letter to the state secretary, and then, if it is deemed relevant enough, the status is condensed to the minister's attention according to the game of telephone.

Germany's Chief Product Officer

Wildberger currently has a decisive advantage: he is the man who is supposed to spare the rest of the cabinet pain. Wildberger made it clear from the outset that he does not see his ministry as a “bad bank”, i.e., as an intermediate or final storage for failed projects. He has taken the offensive, seeing himself as Chief Product Officer: the man who makes concrete promises about when the digital wallet will arrive: on January 2, 2027.

Wildberger is now the man who defines what it must be able to do. Even against strong reservations. And who wants to create new access to administrative services with the citizen app. The state is to become noticeably more digital; Wildberger does not want to change processes laboriously one by one, but first make them more usable for citizens and companies with AI support. Because this is faster than the many tedious steps such as register modernization, NOOTS state treaty, Germany Stack and the other individual building blocks for the part of the digital state hood invisible to citizens to progress at all.

Wildberger, on the other hand, must perform quickly. And he overrides parts of the checks and balances that normally operate in ministries. What is slow and sluggish does not always have a reason. But it often saves a lot of trouble later if problems have been thoroughly examined from different perspectives, even if it is annoying. But Wildberger has little time for reservations.

Failure is an option

The minister thus makes himself vulnerable. Just as he demands of others, the same applies to him: his successes must come. They must be measurable and, above all, as the leaders of the CDU, CSU, and SPD repeatedly emphasize, the reforms must be noticeable. And not just in a negative, but also in a positive sense. And Wildberger is supposed to achieve this, according to Friedrich Merz, who is expected at the birthday party in early May, according to an announcement within the ministry. A year after the start, Wildberger is still the Chancellor's man in office. The fact that the political newcomer might fail is anything but impossible.

Because any of his projects could go wrong. The nervousness of those involved is palpable. The minister is pushing; the technology must deliver. And one certainty hangs in the air: for projects that directly affect citizens – above all the digital wallet and the administrative platform – delivering immature banana software is not an option. One shot per project. And if it doesn't hit, careers will end, authorities will lose competencies, companies will lose contracts.

The Digitalization Minister

If you understand digital policy as data, AI, digital infrastructures, data centers, and administrative modernization, then Wildberger is still an unusual minister, but he has arrived in the job. He manages his state product agency as he sees fit. The migration process from copper DSL to fiber optics? When the ministry had actually finalized its ideas in this complex context, the minister had a few additions that had not yet been agreed upon. That he now, less than a year later, showed his state secretary the door a few days ago, was interpreted primarily as a signal to the inside: Binding friendliness is not to be confused with laissez-faire.

However, if you understand the Digital Ministry as a place for political design, where the basic principles are defined for how society should interact with each other and for each other in digitalization in the future, then one thing stands out. Wildberger does not feel truly comfortable with these debates. This part of politics is alien to him; for him, it's about reason and probability. Digital sovereignty? Not a theoretical question, but one of concrete capabilities that can be brought about through market economy means and state incentives.

You can literally watch the minister think when it's working inside him, and he occasionally stumbles when speaking because he's already half a thought ahead of what his tongue can convey. Data retention? He has no objections, it makes sense to him. Chat control and content searches? Breaking encryption would not make sense, but he would rather not make any compromises on child protection. And it's not about general breaking of encryption. Data protection? He emphasizes that it is important, again and again. But does that mean informational self-determination of the individual or rather better data security?

Recently, Wildberger has increasingly emphasized that data usage must primarily concern industrial data that is not personal. But when it comes to the EUDI Wallet, his proof of delivery, many concerns are improper for him. And in Brussels, politicians are surprised by the new positions of the Federal Republic. That Wildberger is also co-responsible for the Digital Services Act, that he has a political role in many other aspects of digitalization; currently, this is secondary. For Wildberger, digital policy currently primarily means digitalization policy and AI. For the state and for the economy, and thus for society.

And specifically, as tangible a policy as possible, with results. Which is why it would be wrong to look only at him after a year of black-red government when assessing Wildberger's task. His digital policy has not been a major point of contention so far, although there would be good reasons for it.

New Powers for Security Authorities

The wishes from the Interior Ministry, led by CSU Minister Alexander Dobrindt, who was also involved with digital topics from a different perspective as Minister for Transport and Digital Infrastructure, are currently causing a rather tired outcry. Dobrindt has become calmer, focusing on cybersecurity, such as with Cyber Dome, the outcome of which no one really knows to this day. He has at least set two important regulatory cornerstones on their way with the NIS2 and CRA implementation and accompanying law, which were overdue for years. The powers for the intelligence services are to be massively expanded, while control is to be reduced. All in a conciliatory tone from the Interior Minister, who has reinvented himself. While bureaucracy reduction usually means that at least one regulation must be dropped when a new one is created, this apparently does not apply to the regulatory norms of security authorities. But few seem to be bothered by it.

Increased Sheriff Density

The federal government has just launched a new version of data retention, and this week it approved biometric matching with internet data. With the new SPD Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig, far-reaching measures that were previously rejected by FDP and Green government participation, even against the SPD, are apparently also feasible. Hubig, herself a former judge and prosecutor, acts more in the role of an enforcer of law and order, as a protector of the weak in the digital space. For example, when it comes to deepfake pornography or better consumer protection. Although the latter is always viewed in this government under the condition of economic compatibility, if consumer protection could even remotely pose a threat to economic recovery, it is immediately called into question.

The Distant Relatives

Katherina Reiche is one of those whose department had to lose feathers with the formation of the government. The CDU politician, chemist, and former manager, who, like Wildberger, also worked for E.ON for a time, has few generally perceptible digital policy powers. And yet she plays a central role in competition law, in procurement law, in data centers, and many other areas – she is an essential part of the political supply chain. Reiche and Wildberger form an interesting pairing in the cabinet: both stand for intensive familiarity with industry and business, for an internationality that some other cabinet members lack. While Karsten Wildberger can discuss the Canadian AI researcher Yoshua Bengio as if out of nowhere, Reiche can give spontaneous lectures on supply chains of chemical precursors that are also relevant to the semiconductor industry. And both share the same fate, unusual for top politicians: giving a rousing speech in a beer tent and convincing other people of their policies is not their strength.

No Flying Taxis, But Minimum Age

Dorothee Bär (CSU) can do that – and yet it is quiet around her, who once caused a sensation with digital topics. The Franconian, responsible for research, quantum computing, technology, and space travel, is responsible for important programs, for example on the future of microelectronics when it comes to robotics, space travel, and satellite constellations. However, the ministry had to hand over the education topic to the Family Ministry, which Karin Prien took over. And with it, one of the most emotional debates of our time: the social media minimum age.

Shortly after taking office, Prien announced that a commission should develop recommendations for better child and youth protection on the internet. It is now to present its conclusions in June, almost simultaneously with a commission convened by Ursula von der Leyen as President of the EU Commission. Since the appointed experts overlap at least partially, there is at least a certain probability that the minimum age debate will not be conducted in completely opposing directions. Elsewhere, for example in digital education, progress is still modest – here, people are still waiting for the long-agreed-upon new edition of the Digital Pact to finally be finalized.

Klingbeil's Small Edges

One who has largely held back so far: Lars Klingbeil. Once started as a network politician in the Bundestag, the current Finance Minister and SPD leader has not attracted much attention so far. However, he is actively pursuing policies that also affect citizens. The agreement on the minimum duty on goods shipments from outside the EU, for example, or the anti-Temu-Alibaba-Shein agreement at the European level – both would not have been possible without Klingbeil. This concerns potential billions in revenue for customs.

The Vice-Chancellor will also soon propose a plan for taxing profits from cryptocurrencies. And even if he is currently hardly collecting any significant amount from the large digital corporations with the 500 million euros in revenue from 2025 from global minimum taxation, Klingbeil remains open to a digital tax. He lets the publicly pre-empted Wolfram Weimer starve here. The topic is politically sensitive, touches on Trump, trade conflicts, tariffs, and more. Klingbeil signaled his limits to Wildberger from the outset regarding responsibility for the federal IT service center. And thus gave the digital minister a crash course in political power practice.

Wildberger's Savings Mandate

That this was a defeat for him, the digital minister would not phrase it that way. In the end, they reached an agreement. And Karsten Wildberger has little time for such disputes. He is to save another three billion euros, as Finance Minister Klingbeil and Chancellor Merz recently tasked him when the key points for the budget were agreed upon this week. Wildberger will also see this figure as a task for which there is no alternative but to solve it. And perhaps also consult a small language model for solution ideas if the civil servants in his ministry are off duty and unreachable. Whether this was successful will become clearer in his second year. Only one thing is certain: If Wildberger fails, the federal government has a much bigger problem. It relies on him being successful. And Friedrich Merz, of course.

(nen)