#rp26 speaker Dirk Schrödter: Schleswig-Holstein's journey towards digital sovereignty

We are in a one-way street: dependency on large software monopolies is slowing down innovation, jeopardizing data protection, and making the state vulnerable to blackmail. Meanwhile in Northern Germany, the administration's operating system is currently being rewritten. The motto: open source first, away from Microsoft & Co. and toward true digital sovereignty. With this, Schleswig-Holstein is the first federal state to embark on this consistent path. Dirk Schrödter, head of the state chancellery and digitalization minister of Schleswig-Holstein, has been a particularly strong advocate of this approach. For him, public procurement procedures are not just a bureaucratic evil, but a strategic lever for local value creation and technological freedom. 

Together with Leonhard Dobusch, Dirk Schrödter discusses at #rp26, how to implement the “impossible” in administration and why “public money, public code” can no longer remain a mere demand, but has become a strategic necessity for a sovereign Europe. 

Before taking office as Head of the State Chancellery in 2017, Dirk Schrödter worked for the Ministry of Finance in Schleswig-Holstein, where he was responsible for financial and budget planning as well as federal financial relations. He is also a lecturer in economics and public finance at the University of Applied Sciences for Administration and Service in Schleswig-Holstein. 

Leonhard Dobusch is a professor of business administration specializing in organization at the Institute for Organization and Learning (IOL) at the University of Innsbruck. He is co-founder and scientific director of the Momentum Institute, a member of the ORF Foundation Board, and a regular blogger at netzpolitik.org.