Now It's Time to Act: Against the Purity Obsession in the Sovereignty Debate

On Wednesday, June 10, 2026, three individuals sat at a table in Berlin who do not often agree on joint press releases: a federal minister from the CDU, a state premier from the CDU, and a green economic minister. On this day, they were united. More speed, fewer reporting obligations, "one in, one out." Karsten Wildberger delivered the line to remember: "more speed, less frustration, just do it." Those who have survived the German digital debate of recent years can take a moment to celebrate this.

Interestingly, it is also worth noting who is setting the pace here. According to Hendrik Wüst, North Rhine-Westphalia sees itself at the forefront of state restructuring, and Wildberger agreed: the state is leading the way in reducing bureaucracy and reporting obligations. This is more than just local patriotism. If the most populous federal state, with its approximately 18 million inhabitants, demonstrates that it works, it serves as a template for the rest of the republic.

The truly exciting part of the press conference was, however, the quiet part. Because everything the state needs for its promise already exists: the infrastructure and applications that have proven themselves in operation. This technology is already running extensively in the normal day-to-day business of companies. We just continue to act as if we have to invent it first.

The Personnel Shortage Demonstrates the Need

The honest background of the entire event: the state wants to become faster but cannot conjure up the necessary personnel because it simply isn't there. On the contrary: the overload continues to rise. The wave of retirements in government agencies has been foreseeable for years, the job market is empty, and the tasks are not getting any fewer. Mona Neubaur calculated that an average business spends 32 hours a month just on bureaucratic obligations. In the offices themselves, the gap is even larger because it cannot simply be filled by recruiting.

A Single Lever Remains

This leaves only one lever that can keep up with the growing burden: removing the same repetitive work from desks. Those who consider this ideological should feel free to continue stacking files by hand and counting how many caseworkers will retire in the next decade. The size of this lever is evident in our daily work. Where documents are processed in a standardized manner, the effort per case shrinks from a good half hour to just a few minutes. The time gained does not evaporate; it moves to where it is needed: to the complicated citizen inquiries where experience and good judgment matter, and no form will help.

Every Approval Contains a Stack of Files

Wüst and Wildberger promised faster approvals, approval fictions, the "construction turbo." All correct. However, approvals do not become faster solely through new laws. The sheer volume of documentation that someone has to go through usually acts as a brake, and only rarely does the text of the law itself. Almost every procedure consists fundamentally of building applications, plans, expert opinions, and evidence. A construction turbo that does not change this mountain of files accelerates about as much as a sports car with the handbrake on.

The most far-reaching thought of the day even ran without the label AI. Wüst wants to move away from full inspections towards risk-based processing: thoroughly examining the suspicious, waving through the innocuous. This cannot be done manually with large quantities. It requires machines to read the processes, pre-sort them, and elevate the sensitive cases. This is precisely where the political goal meets the technology that already exists.

The Scaling Question is Already Answered

Wildberger is correct in aiming for a sovereign administrative cloud and a common platform instead of plastering the country with individual pilots. The exciting question today is a very practical one: which solution can run across thousands of authorities and millions of documents without collapsing? Whether an AI can read documents was yesterday's question, and it has been answered for years.

And here, in the excitement, the most important thing is overlooked: Such systems are already in operation in our most regulatory-demanding industries. Banks and insurance companies automate their document processes day by day in large volumes, under supervision, with complete traceability, because otherwise, the auditor is on their backs. We no longer need to prove that this scales; it has already been paid for and settled. And if the largest federal state takes this seriously, it is also the toughest stress test one could wish for.

The Purity Obsession of the Sovereignty Debate

Now to the point that genuinely concerns me. Digital sovereignty is a legitimate goal; no one with sense disputes that. However, the debate has a construction flaw: it treats everything the same. Every cloud comes under general suspicion, every foreign component is considered half treason, and truly "sovereign" is ultimately only the system that does not yet exist. This tendency towards purity sounds principled but acts as a constant brake in everyday life. It cannot distinguish a seriously problematic dependency from a solution that operates in compliance with the GDPR, keeps its data in the EU, is auditable and certified, and can be changed if necessary.

Sovereignty is determined by quite banal questions: where the data is located, who has access, whether each processing step can be traced, and whether one can get rid of the provider when desired. Today, there are concrete and increasingly European answers to these questions. Those who instead wait for the one hundred percent German solution, built from the grain of sand in the chip upwards, will probably still be waiting when the last caseworker has long since retired. This hesitation ultimately produces the dependency it was supposed to prevent: the dependency on its own slowness.

Germany is Better Than Its Reputation

This is the real message of this Wednesday. Germany and Europe are in much better shape than the German penchant for self-flagellation would suggest. We have a cross-party consensus, which is rare enough in this country, along with a state that leads the way, a functioning infrastructure, and applications that serve in the most demanding industries. So it is not about the means, but rather about the courage to use them, as we prefer to lose ourselves in caution, perfectionism, and endless fundamental debates while the stacks of files continue to grow.

Wildberger's formula ultimately fits better than he may have intended: just do it. The tools are on the table, tested and long paid for. What we are still waiting for, to be honest, no one knows for sure.