And the winner is… Hesse.
Why no other German state runs such digital administration.
Hesse is Germany’s most digital administration in 2026. And while Hamburg remains Germany’s most digital state overall (including its economy), Hesse has fought its way to the top spot specifically in administration. Reason enough for us to get to the bottom of why. Spoiler: it’s not down to better software. So what is it, then?
1. Digitisation is a matter for the boss.
Hesse has its own Ministry of Digital Affairs and a Digital Cabinet. That means digitisation isn’t treated as an IT topic, but decided regularly at the highest political level. Priorities, budgets and projects are steered centrally, instead of letting every authority decide on its own.
2. New laws have to be thought through digitally from the start.
Before new laws are passed, they go through a so-called digital check. This checks whether they enable digital administrative processes or create unnecessary bureaucracy. That way, new rules emerge that are meant to work digitally from the start, instead of having to be laboriously adapted later.
3. There’s one shared strategy instead of many individual solutions.
Instead of ministries and authorities pursuing digitisation independently of each other, Hesse follows a statewide digital strategy with shared goals. That prevents isolated solutions and makes it easier for authorities to work together.
4. Money follows a shared set of priorities.
Funding is also steered centrally. That means investment flows in a targeted way into projects that create added value for the whole state, instead of financing many small individual projects in parallel. That sounds unspectacular at first. But it isn’t.
Because many digitisation projects don’t fail because of the technology. They fail because nobody takes overall responsibility.
Image: This image was created with AI.
Source: Bitkom state index 2026.
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