The Ministry of Justice in Baden-Württemberg operates 585 fax machines. Not as backup systems or museum pieces – as active government infrastructure maintained for legal communication. It’s part of a fleet of over 1,400 fax machines that German state officials maintain across twelve ministries while simultaneously pursuing what they call “digital transformation,” according to recent reporting from The Munich Eye.
The Ministry of the Interior keeps 568 fax units operational. Add in the Ministry of Finance’s 164 machines, Education’s 53 units, and Agriculture’s 41 devices, and you start to see the scale of institutional fax dependency across Baden-Württemberg’s government operations.
Here’s what makes the numbers particularly interesting: government representatives claim these fax machines are “rarely used for routine communication.” Let that sink in for a moment. Officials maintain 1,400 fax machines that they describe as rarely used. The explanation? They’re kept for “legal requirements and deadline compliance.”
It’s a fascinating contradiction that reveals the gap between digital ambitions and regulatory reality. What does “rarely used” mean when you’re maintaining 1,400 units across twelve government offices? The math suggests either these machines see more action than officials acknowledge, or Baden-Württemberg has created the world’s most excessive backup communication system.
The situation gets even more intriguing when you look at the ministries that eliminated fax technology entirely. The State Chancellery, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Ministry of Transport have all proven that government operations can function without fax machines. Their success raises an obvious question: if three ministries eliminated fax entirely, why do the other nine need 1,400 units for occasional legal deadlines?
For anyone who needs to fax Baden-Württemberg’s government, this creates a peculiar situation: which of the twelve ministries still expect fax, and which have moved on? Those who only occasionally need to send fax from computer to German government offices find themselves navigating an inconsistent landscape where communication requirements vary by department.
The answer to why fax persists likely lies in Germany’s regulatory framework. When courts and legal systems accept faxed documents as valid but view digital alternatives with skepticism, individual ministries have little reason to modernize on their own. Legal requirements for document transmission and deadline compliance make government offices reluctant to change, even when digital options would be more efficient.
Baden-Württemberg’s situation illustrates a broader pattern: the gap between digital modernization goals and institutional reality. Government officials genuinely pursue modernization while simultaneously maintaining legacy systems required by existing legal frameworks. The result is a mixed communication system – twelve ministries, three approaches, and 1,400 fax machines that officials insist are “rarely used.”
As long as legal deadlines can be met with fax but remain uncertain with digital alternatives, Baden-Württemberg’s ministries will keep maintaining machines they claim to barely touch. It’s not irrational – it’s just not particularly digital.