A year after the establishment of the Ministry for Digitalization and State Modernization (BMDS), the ministry reportedly still has over 100 vacant positions. This information was revealed in a response to an inquiry from the Green parliamentary group, as reported by T-Online.
According to the Ministry’s reply, 109 positions were unfilled as of April 30, 2026. While Minister Karsten Wildberger (CDU) informed the Bundestag on Thursday that the ministry currently has 550 employees, the official explanation for the empty roles cited “pending structural development work” and “generally usual staff turnover”. The ministry also noted that many planning positions are “currently incoming”.
Personnel shortages have been identified across all divisions. Specifically, vacant roles include 36 positions in the central administration unit, 22 in house management, 20 in the department for state modernization and bureaucracy reduction, 13 in digital policy and economy, 9 in communication and strategy, 6 in the department for the Deutschland-Stack (a major administrative digitization project), and 3 in digital infrastructures.
Rebecca Lenhard, the Greens’ parliamentary spokesperson for digital policy, criticized the slow pace of the ministry’s development. She told T-Online that the overall state of the BMDS was “disappointing”. She argued that the open positions reveal much about the ministry’s “actual operational capacity”. Lenhard concluded that the persistent absence of concrete measures is unsurprising: anyone who seeks to modernize the state requires not only ambitious headlines but also solid structures, adequate personnel, and the necessary power of execution.