Open letter to Claudia Plattner
Digital sovereignty for Germany and Europe is possible!
Nikolaus Dürk | 26.08.2025
Dear Ms. Plattner,
We refer to your statements to the German Press Agency (dpa), which were published in many media outlets. Your description of the current situation is correct in parts: Germany is dependent on US providers in key areas, and in the short term, more control and risk mitigation are obviously necessary. However, digital sovereignty is achievable and is a prerequisite for our security, economic strength, and the independent shaping of our future. If we constantly struggle with damage control alone, we will not be able to escape the predicament of overwhelming dependencies.
Your statement that US companies are “ten years ahead” in terms of investment repeats a marketing narrative that is often used to discourage businesses and public administrations from purchasing European solutions. This argument is often used politically as a reason to postpone urgently needed procurement and investment decisions. In reality, many dependencies could be reduced in the short term if policymakers were to specifically consider and promote existing solutions from Europe in tenders.
Open, functional alternatives and strong European providers exist in areas such as cloud, low-code, communication and collaboration, BPM, AI, and many more. Many of these open technologies are already widely used today and are successfully deployed by hundreds of public authorities, companies, and other organisations worldwide. They reduce dependencies and maintain full control over data.
What we need strategically are targeted investments in open source software and a public spending policy that creates demand for open, European solutions. This is the only way to create a resilient ecosystem that actually reduces dependencies instead of just managing them. Practical criteria for such procurement are available; as companies and associations in the digital economy and civil society, we have been submitting concrete proposals on this for years.
In May 2025, Federal Minister Dr. Wildberger publicly announced at re:publica his intention to make open source and open standards the guiding principle in the federal government's IT architecture. The coalition agreement also strikes a similar tone. However, this will only succeed if the public sector consistently relies on open source. This will drive forward the sustainable digitalisation of public administration and strengthen the independent innovative power of business and society in Germany and Europe. It would be wrong to give up at this point. Because we are convinced that digital sovereignty for Germany is possible. We just have to want it and push ahead with determination.
Sincerely
The signatories
Organisations and associations
- Open Source Business Alliance e.V. (OSBA), Peter Ganten
- ALASCA – Association for operational, open cloud infrastructures e.V., Josephine Seifert
- APELL (Association Professionnelle Européenne du Logiciel Libre) ASBL, Sebastian Raible
- #cnetz – Association for Network Policy e.V., Prof. Dr. Jörg Müller-Lietzkow
- Forum for Computer Scientists for Peace and Social Responsibility (FIfF) e.V., Rainer Rehak
- German Unix User Group (GUUG) e.V., Ingo Wichmann
- OpenInfra Europe, Thierry Carrez
- Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland (OKF) e.V.
- Opensaar e. V., Bernhard Mommenthal
- Rebalance Now e.V., Aline Blankertz
Companies, government agencies, universities, and individuals
- Minister for Digitalisation and Media Policy in Schleswig-Holstein
- .riess applications gmbh, Lothar K. Becker (Managing Partner)
- AGNITAS AG, Martin Aschoff (Executive Board)
- allotropia software GmbH, Thorsten Behrens (Managing Director)
- B1 Systems GmbH, Ralph Dehner (CEO)
- Cloud&Heat Technologies GmbH, Marius Feldmann (Head of operations)
- Collabora Productivity, Michael Meeks (CEO)
- DAASI International, Peter Gietz (CEO)
- DISQU GmbH, Marcel Beyer (CTO)
- Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg CAS, Prof. Dr. Andreas Föhrenbach (Dekan)
- Technical University of Munich (TUM), Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Helmut Krcmar (Professor of Business Informatics)
- EGroupware GmbH, Birgit Becker (CEO)
- Element GmbH, Patrick Alberts (CEO)
- GONICUS GmbH, Stefan Grote (CEO)
- Heinlein Support, Peer Heinlein (Founder & CEO)
- IKU GmbH & Co. KG, Andreas Niederländer (CEO)
- inett GmbH, Marco Gabriel (CEO)
- inmedias.it GmbH, Carsten Brunke (CEO)
- IT Works AG, Rudolf Strobl (Executive Board)
- KIX Service Software GmbH, Rico Barth (CEO)
- Kroker Legal, Maximilian Kroker (Lawyer and computer scientist)
- Linux Hotel, Ingo Wichmann (CEO)
- LWsystems GmbH & Co. KG, Ansgar Licher (Managing Partner)
- mailbox.org, Peer Heinlein (Founder & CEO)
- Nextcloud GmbH, Frank Karlitschek (CEO)
- NMMN New Media Markets & Networks GmbH, Lars Sommerfeldt (CEO)
- Open-Xchange, Andreas Gauger (CEO)
- OpenCloud, Peer Heinlein (Gründer & CEO)
- OpenProject GmbH, Niels Lindenthal (CEO)
- OpenTalk, Peer Heinlein (Gründer & CEO)
- OSISM GmbH, Christian Berendt (Founder & CEO)
- otris systems GmbH, Daniel Rauer (CEO)
- phamos GmbH, Wolfram Schmidt (CEO)
- pretix GmbH Raphael Michel (CEO)
- S7n Cloud Services GmbH, Kurt Garloff (CEO)
- SINC GmbH, Martin Rollinger (CEO)
- Stackable GmbH Lars Francke (CEO)
- Stadt Langenselbold, Marco Meid (Digitalisation Officer)
- Thomas-Krenn.AG, Christoph Maier (CEO)
- TUXEDO Computers GmbH, Herbert Feiler (CEO)
- Univention GmbH, Peter Ganten (CEO)
- x-cellent technologies GmbH, Markus Fensterer (CEO)
- X-Net Services GmbH, Nikolaus Dürk (CEO)
- Yorizon Gmbh & Co. KG, Gernot Hofstetter (Co-CEO)
- Prof. Dr. Harald Wehnes, Spokesperson for the “Digital Sovereignty” working group of the German Informatics Society (GI)
- Prof. Dr. Julian Kunkel, Spokesperson for the working group„Open Source Software“ Society for Computer Science (GI)
- Dr. Martin Weigele, Spokesperson for the “Data Protection and IT Security” working group of the German Informatics Society (GI)
- Jutta Horstmann
- Marius Quabeck
- Lisa Reisch
