Federalism
The federal government legislates for many services, but the Länder and municipalities run them. A federal law can set a deadline; it cannot by itself replace thousands of local IT systems or procurement decisions.
02.04 Government
Modernising the state: a task with many owners
Digital administration, less bureaucracy and better coordination between ministries have been promised by every recent German government. Dorothee Bär has touched this agenda twice — as a coordinator without a ministry from 2018 to 2021, and since 2025 as head of a ministry that is not responsible for it. This page explains who holds which part.
01 — The agenda
What “government modernisation” means
The phrase covers three related but distinct tasks, and much confusion in public debate comes from treating them as one.
Digital administration
Making it possible to apply for a parking permit, child benefit or a business registration online, from start to finish, and ensuring that authorities share data instead of asking citizens for the same documents again. In Germany most of these services are delivered by the Länder and municipalities, which is why federal law alone cannot deliver them.
Bureaucracy reduction
Cutting the reporting duties, forms and procedural steps imposed on citizens, companies and institutions. The National Regulatory Control Council (Normenkontrollrat, NKR), an independent advisory body, assesses the bureaucratic cost of federal legislation and reports on progress.
Inter-ministerial coordination
Because each federal minister runs his or her ministry independently, cross-cutting projects need a mechanism for agreement: cabinet committees, rounds of state secretaries, coordinators in the Chancellery, or a lead ministry with real powers.
Context
Why the German state is hard to digitise
None of the obstacles below is specific to one minister or one government. Together they explain why successive programmes have struggled.
Departmental independence
Each federal minister runs his or her ministry independently. Cross-cutting IT projects need agreement among equals, which is slow when priorities and budgets differ.
Registers and data
The “once only” idea — citizens give information to the state once, and authorities share it — depends on connected registers and clear data-protection rules. Building those is slow, technical work with little public visibility.
Front end versus back office
Putting a form online is easier than redesigning the process behind it. Services can count as “digital” while the case is still printed, signed and filed on paper inside the authority.
02 — A short history
From the Online Access Act to a new ministry
The OZG was the central legal instrument of digital administration during Bär's years as commissioner. It was never her responsibility, but its fate shaped how her office was judged.
- 2017
Online Access Act
The Onlinezugangsgesetz obliges federal, state and municipal administrations to offer 575 administrative services online by the end of 2022. Lead responsibility lies with the Federal Interior Ministry (BMI).
- March 2018
A commissioner in the Chancellery
Bär becomes Minister of State and Federal Government Commissioner for Digitalisation. netzpolitik.org notes that the post's powers and budget are unclear.
- November 2018
Implementation strategy
The cabinet adopts “Digitalisierung gestalten”, bundling all ministries' digital projects. Bär coordinates the state-secretary round preparing the Digital Cabinet.
- 2020
The European mirror
In the EU's DESI 2020, Germany ranks 12th overall but 21st for digital public services. In DESI 2021 it is 11th overall and still below average in e-government.
- January 2020
Calls for a digital ministry
Handelsblatt names Bär among Union politicians pushing for a dedicated digital ministry.
- 13 Sep 2021
The deadline cannot be met
The NKR states that the OZG target for the end of 2022 is no longer achievable. The target is missed.
- May 2025
The Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernisation
The Merz government creates the BMDS under Karsten Wildberger. Bär takes over the research ministry, the BMFTR.
03 — The 2025 division
Two ministries, two different “digitals”
The organisational decree of 6 May 2025 drew a line that is easy to miss: the digital state belongs to one ministry, the development of digital technology to another.
| Ministry | Relevant responsibilities | Bär's position |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernisation (BMDS) | Digital policy and the modernisation of the state, including digital administration | Not her ministry |
| Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) | Research; core questions of innovation and technology policy; development of digital technologies; the High-Tech Agenda; SPRIND; games; space | Federal Minister since 6 May 2025 |
| Federal Ministry of Education, Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ) | General, school and vocational education and lifelong learning, moved out of the former education and research ministry | Not her ministry |
A common misreading
Because Bär was the government's digital commissioner until 2021 and now leads a technology ministry, she is sometimes described as responsible for the digital state. She is not. Digital administration and state modernisation sit with the BMDS. Her ministry funds and steers research into digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and microelectronics.
04 — Her role, then and now
Coordinator then; owner of her own procedures now
2018–2021: coordinating without command
Verified fact
According to the government's account in Bundestag document 19/5707, Bär coordinated the state-secretary round of the Digital Cabinet and communicated the government's digital policy. The OZG remained with the Interior Ministry.
Criticism
Critics argued from the start that the office lacked the powers and budget to modernise anything itself. The missed OZG target and Germany's weak DESI ranking for public services became shorthand for the period, even though they were not hers to deliver.
Since 2025: modernising the research system's own machinery
Where Bär now has direct responsibility is the way the research ministry itself works: how it funds, how quickly, and with what rules. Several items in this area are documented, though some only in reporting:
- Research data. According to reporting, the BMFTR prepared a draft Research Data Act around the turn of 2025/26 that would create a German Centre for Microdata at the Federal Statistical Office; data-protection authorities commented on it in February 2026. Whether the cabinet has adopted it could not be verified.
- SPRIND. The Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation now falls within the BMFTR. Its SPRIND Freedom Act, which gave it more financial and operational latitude, dates from December 2023, under the previous government; an evaluation was due by 31 January 2026.
- Transfer. The planned German Agency for Transfer and Innovation (DATI) was not continued; according to a Bundestag document the coalition replaced it with an umbrella brand, “Initiative Forschung & Anwendung”.
None of these is a general programme of state modernisation. They concern the research system's own rules — who may use which data, how freely an innovation agency may act, how research results reach application. That is the scope of Bär's direct responsibility in this field today, and claims that go further should be treated with caution. See innovation and research policy for detail.
05 — The debate
Speed, procedure and accountability
Modernisation is usually argued for in the name of speed: fewer steps, faster decisions, less paper. In research funding, however, procedures also protect quality and fairness — peer review, competitive calls, transparent criteria. The tension surfaced in the 2026 budget debate.
Criticism As reported by Forschung & Lehre, Green MPs including research spokesperson Ayse Asar worried that scientific selection procedures could be bypassed and that money could be concentrated in Bavaria; Linke MP Sonja Lemke criticised spending blocks on construction and transfer programmes. After Bär's first year in office, Asar argued that the government spoke of strategic roadmaps and dialogue formats but could not answer central questions such as the actual effect of the money spent. The ministry replied that its projects were progressing in planning and implementation.
Analysis The criticism does not show that procedures were in fact bypassed; it records a concern. It does, however, point to the central dilemma of modernising research administration. Faster funding is a legitimate aim, and research institutions themselves often complain about the time it takes to receive grants. But speed achieved by reducing competition or review shifts power from scientific peers to the ministry. Whether the BMFTR finds a balance between the two will be visible only over several funding rounds.
Third-party assessment Bundestag documents from 2025 also recorded concerns about the interfaces created by splitting education from research. Those concerns are structural: every new ministerial boundary needs coordination across it, which is exactly the problem the digital commissioner's post was created to solve in 2018.
The case for separate ownership
A dedicated ministry for digital and state modernisation gives one minister responsibility, a budget and legislative initiative — what the commissioner model lacked. Bär herself was among those calling for such a ministry in 2020.
Open questions Analysis
Digital technology research (BMFTR) and the digital state (BMDS) now sit in different houses. Whether results from AI or data research reach public administration depends on cooperation between them, and on the Länder. It is too early to judge how well that works.
06 — Questions
Four questions, short answers
Answers are limited to what the sources support.
Q1Did Bär fail to digitise German administration?
She was not in charge of it. The OZG lay with the Interior Ministry and was implemented largely by the Länder and municipalities. She coordinated and communicated the government's digital agenda. The missed target is a failure of the system she was part of, not a project she owned.
Q2Who is responsible for state modernisation now?
Since 2025, the Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernisation, led by Karsten Wildberger. Bär's ministry is not responsible for digital administration.
Q3Where does Bär's ministry touch the subject?
In research on digital technologies such as AI, which public administration may later use, and in the rules governing the research system itself — research data, SPRIND's freedoms, transfer structures and funding procedures.
Q4What did the 2018–2021 experience change?
It strengthened the argument, which Bär herself made in 2020, that coordination without a ministry is not enough. The creation of the BMDS in 2025 reflects that argument, although the decision was taken by a new government with its own reasons.
07 — Significance
Significance
Bär's story in this field is the story of a structural lesson: modernising the state needs an owner with powers, not only a coordinator with a platform.
Analysis The 2025 reorganisation drew that lesson institutionally. For Bär, it means her direct contribution to a modern state is now measured in a narrower but clearer field: whether the research ministry's own procedures become faster and simpler without weakening the safeguards of scientific funding. The record on that, as of October 2026, is still being written. For the commissioner years in full, see digitalisation.