For the German state of Schleswig-Holstein it is no longer a question. Yes, it is possible to break the dependence on large American tech companies. And yes, it can also save you money. But: it is a long road, with bumps, pitfalls and other setbacks.
After years of preparations, the small northern state, wedged between Hamburg and Denmark, took an important step last year towards digital sovereignty, regaining control over technological tools. All government services have started replacing Microsoft office software, such as Microsoft Word and the Outlook email program, with so-called open source software. This is software that is freely available and whose source code is public and can be adapted and improved by customers. Altogether, about thirty thousand users had to switch: civil servants in the office of the state premier, at all ministries, at the tax authorities and at the judiciary and police.
According to the state, this has already saved 15 million euros on licensing costs, which would otherwise have to be paid to the American tech company. On the other hand, there would be a one-off expenditure of 9 million for the switchover.
But it didn’t go smoothly. “In the beginning we had big problems, especially with e-mail,” says Christine Schmehl, judge and president of the interest group of judges and prosecutors in Schleswig-Holstein. “During the switchover last summer, some of us could not access our e-mail account at all. Sometimes the entire e-mail system was down for several hours. This was of course at the expense of our accessibility. While occasionally cases have to be sent from the police to the public prosecutor, or from the public prosecutor to the court. Here and there the fax machines have been unpacked again.” The state’s court presidents sent an urgent letter to Minister of Digital Affairs Dirk Schrödter (CDU) to complain about it.
Major problems such as poor accessibility now rarely occur, Schmehl notes with relief. “But the new program still costs us a lot of extra time. The e-mail program we now have, OX (Open-Xchange), does not yet have all the functions that we need and that Outlook does have, so we temporarily have a second program, Thunderbird. We are still not back to the old level of Outlook.”
For example, there are still problems, says Schmehl, when using so-called ‘functional email accounts’, such as shared mailboxes that more people need to have access to. In practice, things often go wrong there. “And formatting documents is very difficult now that we no longer use Microsoft Word, but Libre Office. If you send a piece by email, it can arrive completely scrambled.”
Placed before fait accompli
“Geopolitically speaking, it is a good idea to break with dependence on big tech companies,” said Michael Jasper, president of the tax employees union in Schleswig-Holstein. “The people who have to work with these systems every day also understand this. But communication about this with the shop floor was poor from the start.
“Many colleagues who had been used to Microsoft products for years, especially older employees who do not have much affinity with technology, could not smoothly switch to the products we are now working with from one day to the next. They should have been more involved in the switchover, but were faced with a fait accompli. This led to friction in the first weeks. And still not everything works as we were used to. That causes a loss of time.”
The driving force behind the entire operation is State Minister Schrödter of Digital Affairs. The Christian Democrat is carrying out the switch to open source programs with broad political support in the state parliament. Although there is also criticism of the implementation of the switch.
“It all had to happen quickly, Schleswig-Holstein had to play a pioneering role,” says representative Bernd Buchholz of the liberal FDP. “We are now making do. Previously, there was insufficient mapping of which Microsoft Office functions people actually used. For example, we used to be able to book meeting rooms via Outlook. That is no longer possible, which has led to a lot of extra work.”
Have control yourself
When Schleswig-Holstein started investigating how to break its dependence on BigTech about six years ago, the state was initially mainly concerned with the high costs associated with the close relationship with Microsoft, Schrödter recently said during a video meeting with journalists. “Since then, our perspective has shifted to the need to ensure digital sovereignty for our state’s IT. So that we have control over our digital infrastructure and can further develop it. And we retain full control over government data and prevent data from accidentally flowing out of the system.”
In Europe, says Schrödter, we have become increasingly dependent on software systems from a small number of technology companies, most of which are headquartered outside Europe. “It is important that they are subject to non-European laws, such as the American Cloud Act. For us, these American software systems are black boxes: the knowledge and decision-making about them lies with the supplier.
“With open source, that relationship is fundamentally different. We can use it to organize and further develop our digital infrastructure, as we want to do in Schleswig-Holstein itself. Open source is crucial if you want to achieve digital sovereignty. And it is also the key to economic growth in Europe. Because it stimulates competition, innovation and sharing of knowledge.”
In addition to Open-Xchange and Libre Office, Schleswig-Holstein now also works with Nextcloud (as a collaboration platform and for storage) and Element (for instant messaging), among others. This summer, all government workplaces must have open source programs. In the meantime, preparations are being made to replace Microsoft’s Windows operating system with the open source Linux system.
It’s not very difficult either
“The most important challenge in the entire process is managing change in the workforce,” says Schrödter. “We work very closely with our open source partners for this.” Didn’t he underestimate how difficult the switch is for users? “It is not very easy for colleagues who have worked with traditional systems for twenty to thirty years,” he admits. “But it is not very difficult. And every day we show in our ministries and other services that it works, with all the functionalities that the open source solutions have.”
Schleswig-Holstein is not yet completely separated from Microsoft, but according to Schrödter that is feasible. “We uninstalled Microsoft Office at 80 percent of our workplaces last year. For example, the fact that we still work with Microsoft at 20 percent is because [rekenprogramma] Microsoft Excel is deeply embedded in some applications. We have a transition plan for this until 2029.”
AI components are still missing from the open source programs, says Schrödter, “but we are working closely with the open source companies to provide this as well. If you want to achieve digital sovereignty, you will face challenges. And you have to face them, that must be your attitude. You must also realize that digital sovereignty is only achievable with open source technology. Otherwise you will remain dependent.”
Don’t be naive
From Berlin, Jan Philipp Albrecht follows with more than usual interest how Schleswig-Holstein is freeing itself from dependence on Microsoft. Albrecht, chairman of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, the scientific agency of the Greens, was himself Minister for Digitalization (and Energy, Agriculture and the Environment) in Schleswig-Holstein from 2018 to 2022. In that position he played a leading role in the run-up to the major digital switchover. He previously made a name for himself as a champion of digital rights, as a member of the European Parliament (2009-2018), where he was considered the father of European privacy legislation.
Albrecht has an important warning for governments that also want to break away from Big Tech: don’t be naive, it is not easy. In addition to a lot of effort and endurance, it also requires significant investments.
“Our strategy from the start was: we are not pursuing an ideology, we want the best for our public administration, for our state and our citizens. We want to have control ourselves, be flexible, and prefer to spend our money on healthcare, education or childcare rather than on licenses from large companies. This starting point allowed the then coalition of CDU, Greens and FDP to support a project that originally came from the Greens.
“Step by step, we started to implement the plan. The city of Munich also tried to make the switch about ten years ago. But they had to give up because they could not get the staff on board, engage them and convince them that it was a good idea and also feasible.
“You need people to supervise the entire process, and that costs money. Anyone who wants to make themselves independent must realize that you first have to invest. But it must be worth it to us. At some point it will actually make money.”
Task for the European Union
With his broad European view, Albrecht sees a task here for European politics. “You cannot actually do this on a small scale. If a city like Amsterdam wants to switch to open source on its own, as Schleswig-Holstein does now, it has to invest a lot of its own resources – not to mention the schools and universities. It would be better if the European Union and the Member States jointly set up a company that can take care of the switch.”
Albrecht remembers that ten or fifteen years ago the meeting room of the European Parliament was empty when it came to digital sovereignty. “No one was interested, least of all the heads of state and government. That is very different now, because technological and geopolitical issues are linked. And because it is clear that it is also a matter of economic survival.”
Albrecht is pleased that both Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission – at the beginning of this year, at the Munich Security Conference – recognized that Europe must get rid of its dependence on the US. “Firstly in the field of defense and security, but the digital domain is also part of that.”
Anyone who seriously strives for digital sovereignty, says Albrecht, should not want everything at once, but should make choices. “The first priority should be sensitive infrastructure: everything related to energy supply, ports, hospitals and also defense, and the institutions of democratic government. If you manage to become independent in those areas, you have already made a huge step.”
Digital sovereignty does not have to be achieved 100 percent immediately, he emphasizes. “That is not possible. We have to get rid of black and white thinking, which is far too ideological. A company that is not from the European Union is not necessarily bad, an open source company from Canada, for example, can also be very good. And perhaps even a European company that is not open source. We should not be too ideological about it. It is especially important that we start somewhere – and then work on it further.”
