The new Digital Ministry: structure, tasks, and goals

On May 6, 2025, the Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernization (BMDS) was officially established. With the aim of advancing Germany's digitalization, the new ministry combines competencies from six existing departments, including the Federal Chancellery, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Federal Ministry of Economics, and the Federal Ministry of Justice.

With the organizational decree, the new ministry is now being set up under Germany's first digital minister, Karsten Wildberger. He is supported by State Secretary Markus Richter and Parliamentary State Secretaries Philipp Amthor and Thomas Jarzombek.

Many become one

Germany's first independent digital ministry combines expertise from a total of six departments:

• Responsibility for strategic foresight and fundamental issues of digital policy will be transferred directly from the Chancellery (BKAmt).
• The two departments “Digital Administration” and “Digital Society” from the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) will be transferred to the new ministry, together with IT procurement, federal IT management, federal networks, cyber security in the federal administration, and digital administration law.
• The former Federal Ministry of Digital and Transport (BMDV) headed by Dr. Volker Wissing is transferring the areas of digital and data policy and digital infrastructure.
• The new authority is taking over responsibility for better European and national lawmaking and bureaucracy reduction, the digital economy and digital sovereignty, the Digital Summit, and digital policy from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
• The Ministry of Finance (BMF) is transferring responsibility for the ITZBund in part and for the sovereign cloud for administrations.
• The Ministry of Digital Affairs is taking over the Office for Bureaucracy Reduction, Better Regulation and the National Regulatory Control Council from the Ministry of Justice (BMJ), as well as responsibility for implementing the EU's AI Act.

In addition, the organizational decree stipulates a reservation of approval for the new ministry. This applies to all “essential IT expenditures of the direct federal administration” – with the exception of the Federal Ministry of Defense and the security and police tasks within the remit of the BMI, the Federal Intelligence Service, and the tax administration.

#SCCON25 webinar provides insights and inspiration

So much for the theory – but how will the work of the new Digital Ministry look in practice? On June 25, public sector expert Marc Danneberg will provide insights into the main areas of focus and fields of activity in the field of digital administration in a free webinar ahead of #SCCON25.

He will present the measures agreed in the German government's coalition agreement for the digitization of public administration and outline the priorities that should be set from the perspective of the digital economy in order to gain momentum in the modernization of government and public administration.

Would you like to attend? Click here to register for free: www.bitkom-akademie.de/live-online-seminar/neustart-fuer-modernisierung-von-staat-und-verwaltung The event will be held in English language.