Deutschland-Stack: Heinlein Group actively shapes digital sovereignty

The digitalization of public administration is at a turning point: with the Deutschland-Stack, the German government is creating a framework for sovereign IT infrastructures in public administration. As a leading provider of open source solutions for communication and collaboration, the Heinlein Group is actively involved in this process.

Jutta Horstmann, Co-CEO of the Heinlein Group and, in her role as spokesperson for the Public Affairs working group of the Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA), is organizing a workshop on 5 December to accompany the ongoing consultation process for the German stack. The event will take place on the premises of the Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernization and will bring together stakeholders from the administration, associations, the open source industry and the community.

The Deutschland-Stack is more than just a technical map - it defines how independent and capable our public administration will be in the future. As a company that has been equipping authorities and public institutions with sovereign open source solutions for years, we see We see it as our responsibility to contribute our expertise.

As part of the consultation process, the OSBA submitted a comprehensive statement formulating key requirements for the Deutschland-Stack. In essence, the aim is to anchor open source software, open standards and open interfaces as primary evidence for the evaluation criteria - be it for sovereignty, interoperability, future viability or trustworthiness.

The position is clear: only with open source code can authorities independently check what their software is doing, identify security gaps and, if necessary, make adjustments themselves or through service providers of their choice. Closed source solutions may have market power today, but they create the very dependencies that the Deutschland-Stack is supposed to overcome.

With its products and subsidiaries, the Heinlein Group offers components that meet the key requirements of the Deutschland-Stack:

• Communication services:Sovereign e-mail and messaging infrastructures based on proven open source technologies with mailbox

• Collaboration platforms:Video conferencing and file sharing solutions that ensure interoperability through open standards with OpenTalk and OpenCloud

• Hosting and operation:Infrastructure under German or European jurisdiction, without extraterritorial access with Heinlein Support

These solutions are based on open software that is transparently verifiable, continuously developed and supported by a broad ecosystem.

The workshop underlines the strategic positioning of the Heinlein Group as a relevant player in the digitization of public administration. The leading role in the organization of the dialogue between politics, administration and business shows: The Heinlein Group is perceived as a competent partner at eye level.

This commitment is part of a continuous presence on key digitalization topics: At the European Digital Sovereignty Summit as part of the Digital Summit, Peer Heinlein, founder and CEO of Heinlein Group organized the OSBA stand and Jutta Horstmann, Co-CEO of Heinlein Group contributed significantly to the APELL Declaration of Digital Independence - a European commitment to digital sovereignty through open source. The Heinlein Group is thus positioning itself not only as a solution provider, but also as an active shaper of the digital policy agenda at national and European level.

Because we don't just supply technology, we actively shape the discourse on digital sovereignty. The Deutschland-Stack will define the IT landscape of the public sector in the future. This makes it all the more important that open source companies such as the Heinlein Group contribute their experience and solutions.

The Deutschland-Stack is still under development. Among other things, the OSBA demands

• Binding priority for open source software in procurement and awarding contracts:If an open-source solution and a closed-source solution are equally suitable, the open-source solution must be given priority.

• Specification of the criteria:The evaluation criteria must reflect the common understanding that only open source software with open source code, open standards and open interfaces enables sustainable digital sovereignty. Closed-source solutions may dominate today, but they create the very dependencies that need to be overcome.

• Commitment instead of arbitrariness:The criteria of the Deutschland-Stack must be made binding in award procedures - currently they are only formulated as an orientation framework. Without clear guidelines, the stack threatens to become a non-binding wish list.

• European connectivity through the EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework:The Deutschland-Stack must be based on established European standards such as the „Sovereignty Objectives" and SEAL classifications in order to enable cross-border administrative processes and to be able to reuse European solutions.

The Heinlein Group will continue to accompany this process constructively - as a solution provider, as part of the open source ecosystem and as a strategic partner to public administration on the path to greater digital sovereignty.

Further information:

• Germany stack consultation: https://deutschland-stack.gov.de/beteiligung/

• Open Source Business Alliance: https://osb-alliance.de