Following the announcement by Digital Minister Fabian Mehring (Free Voters) that faxes would be banned from public administration, the ministry has now given an initial rough schedule. The aim is to drastically reduce the number of fax machines in Bavarian authorities this year, if possible, a spokeswoman said when asked. By the middle of the legislative period, the aim is to “extensively fully digitalize internal administrative communication” in Bavaria. However, the cabinet decides on the specific measures and a binding schedule. The Council of Ministers’ proposal for the “fax ban” is already being prepared and will be submitted to the cabinet in the next few weeks.
This makes what Mehring had publicly announced a few weeks ago more concrete: Mehring “has a lot of faxing,” it said in a statement from the ministry at the time. They want to be the first federal state to “pull the plug on faxes in public administration.” The new Bavarian digital minister, whose authority otherwise has manageable powers within the state government, certainly had the headlines for the moment.
Two things have now become clear: the abolition of fax communication will not be completely problem-free and overnight. And: The authorities, including the ministries, will continue to be reachable by citizens by fax.
After all, we know roughly how many fax machines are in Bavarian offices: In March 2023, the Bavarian state administration had 3,766 devices – pure fax machines, not counting multifunctional devices. A parliamentary question from the Greens revealed this at the time. “Currently, many people still contact the state administration by fax. Therefore, as an expression of service and citizen-friendliness, fax machines will continue to be available to people who use this preferred means of communication,” the state government announced at the time.
That shouldn’t change either. “Of course, people in the Free State can continue to send the authorities a fax according to my plans,” Mehring also makes clear, but he emphasizes: “This must be accepted there as a computer fax and processed digitally without any media disruption.” There will no longer be any internal communication via fax in the future. “At the heart of our efforts is the idea of ensuring complete end-to-end digitalization in all of our government communications in the future,” explains the ministry. In the future, the focus will be on “consistent digital communication”.
You have to “say goodbye to the technology of the last century,” which is not AI-capable and is a symbol of digital backwardness, says Mehring. “I think our Bavaria should become the home of high-tech and progress and not be a museum for faxes and dead spots.” The ministry also emphasizes that the abolition of the fax is neither symbolic politics nor a PR stunt. “Rather, it is a technical necessity to make Bavaria’s administration fit for the digital age.”
There is also progress in the judiciary, where fax communication has long been the absolute standard. When asked, the Ministry of Justice announced that a milestone had recently been reached: “All Bavarian courts – the Bavarian Supreme Regional Court, the higher regional courts, the regional courts and district courts – work with the e-file in civil and family matters.” And since January 2022, professional parties involved in the process, especially lawyers, notaries and authorities, have generally been obliged to submit written documents and appendices electronically. Others involved use fax machines in particular to transmit urgent decisions and judgments. “The judiciary is currently obliged to accept faxes for legal reasons,” explains a spokeswoman. “On the one hand, there are corresponding requirements in the relevant federal procedural regulations. On the other hand, it follows from the case law of the Federal Court of Justice that written form requirements can in principle also be met by sending a document by fax.”
The same applies here: When it comes to internal communication, faxes should be a thing of the past as soon as possible. Only when communicating externally, with “normal” citizens, will the path for faxes remain open, and in some cases will have to remain open. Mehring and Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU) also agree on this point – even if there was recently a small media skirmish between the two about this. In his own press release, Mehring interpreted the fact that Füracker referred to the necessary citizen service when it came to faxes (“There are people who want to fax us something”) as “stubborn sentimentality in favor of faxes” – which, according to reports, simply caused the Ministry of Finance to shake their heads in surprise. The next day the banter was history again.