The CeBit technology fair in Hanover, Germany, March 24, 1990, displayed a portable fax machine that weighed 3 kg (6.6 pounds) and could connect to any telephone via an audio coupler .
Holger Hollemann/AFP/Getty Images
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Holger Hollemann/AFP/Getty Images
BERLIN – The echoes of the 1990s still resonate in the German capital. Like techno music, fax machines are still trendy. According to Latest figures According to Germany’s digital industry association, four out of five companies in Europe’s largest economy continue to use fax machines and a third do so regularly or very often.
Just as Germany’s reputation for efficiency is regularly undermined by slow internet connections and a reliance on paper and rubber stamps, fax machines are confronting a world powered by artificial intelligence.
But progress is coming in the Bundestag – the lower house – where lawmakers have been directed by the parliamentary budget committee to get rid of their trusty fax machines by the end of June and instead rely on email to official contact.
Torsten Herbst, the parliamentary head of the pro-business Free Democrats, pointed out fax machine after fax machine as he walked through the Bundestag. He says the public sector is particularly fond of faxing and that joining parliament is like going back in time.
“When I was elected in 2017, I walked to my office and there was a fax machine inside,” Herbst said, eyes wide. I think that was a mistake.” “I called the administrator in the Bundestag, asking why did you send me a fax machine? I don’t need it.” He said he was disappointed by the response: “Oh, yes, you need it. If you want to send a question to the government, use the fax machine!”
Herbst spearheaded the initiative to remove fax machines from parliament. He convinced the budget committee that it was worth doing. cost cutting initiatives. But he says unplugging devices is only half the battle.
“When you send a message using a fax machine, you sign it and it becomes valid,” Herbst points out. “That is different from email, which does not have the same status in our legal system.” As a member of Germany’s ruling coalition, Herbst is working on legislation to make email a legally binding form of communication.
Herbst said the long-standing legal position of fax machines in Germany stems from a widespread suspicion of anything not written with pen and ink on real paper. The result, he said, is excessive bureaucracy.
“In Germany, we have a lot of processes where you have to print paperwork or need a PDF file — and in the end it gets printed, which makes no sense,” Herbst says, shaking his head.
The German army also arrived under recent criticism rely on fax machines.
In March, the International Monetary Fund warning that if Germany wants to boost economic growth, it must reduce bureaucracy and finally go digital properly.
Thorsten Alsleben, who runs the neo-liberal think tank New social market economy initiative in Berlin, agree. “58% of the companies we surveyed said they did not want to invest in Germany because of bureaucracy,” Alsleben said. “It’s worse than taxes, worse than high energy prices, worse than anything else.”
As part of a campaign calling on the government to reduce red tape, Alsleben opened what he called “the most German of any museum in Germany”, the Bureaucratic Museum.
Among the artifacts on display is a 10-foot stack of records showing the paperwork needed to install a wind turbine. Another was a photo of a mailbox labeled: “Please submit online forms here.”
Alsleben said the obsession with bureaucracy is the result of a risk-averse mindset among German civil servants.
“The government officials, not the politicians, but the bureaucrats, they said, ‘No, no, no,” Alsleben lamented. If we reduce this bureaucracy, this and this could happen and that’s too dangerous.'” “And then people get scared and say, okay, no, then we can’t reduce it.”
However, for some people, paperwork means business. Marcus Schulze runs Office equipment supplier provides comprehensive fax repair and maintenance services.
He succeeded his father 30 years ago and said when it comes to fax machines, it’s business as usual. “Our customers include hospitals, doctor’s offices, law firms, courtrooms, you name it!” Schulze said.
He shows off his vast collection of old typewriters, desk phones, floppy disks and fax machines that now adorn the shelves in his own office. He says they are more than just decoration; He often rented older models of fax machines to production companies for films set in the early 1990s.
Newer models are also in demand but not for fictional offices. “Last year, we received an order from the Berlin police for 60 brand new fax machines.”
Schulze said many customers believe fax machines are more secure than email. The apparent concern about data protection in Germany is often cited as the reason many people stay here Still prefer to pay in cash than credit cards.
He says the only country that competes with Germany for its love of analog technology That’s the other major economy, Japan – where fax machine manufacturers, he says, are still the best.
Back in the Bundestag, lawmaker Herbst checks the Foreign Affairs Committee’s machine before sending something to see if it is still connected. When it began to beep and hiss, he sighed and watched the paper roll through the machine.
Grinning, Herbst said that the last fax he sent was a petition to eliminate congressional fax machines.
