Germany's Digital Revolution Continues To Encounter The Fax Machine

Germany's public administration continues to struggle with digitising government services, despite years of political promises. The country now has a dedicated federal ministry for digital affairs and state modernisation, whose minister Karsten Wildberger has a modernisation agenda of more than 200 measures, from simpler ID applications to prefilled tax returns, and a digital wallet that is due to start on 2 January 2027. He has called administrative digitalisation a patchwork and says there are no fax machines in his ministry.

Elsewhere, responsibilities split between federal, state and municipal authorities, outdated software and complicated requirements keep slowing things down, and many citizens and businesses still meet paper forms, physical appointments and processes that ask for the same information again and again. Germany remains one of the world's leading industrial economies, capable of building extraordinarily sophisticated machinery while occasionally asking citizens to print a document so that an official can type its contents into a computer. Digital transformation is a recurring political priority, supported by strategies, funding programmes and ambitious declarations of intent.

Implementation, however, must navigate the country's deep respect for procedure, institutional autonomy and established practice. The fax machine may no longer rule every office, but the philosophy behind it remains remarkably well represented.