German parliament ditches last fax machines for digital communication

Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, has stopped using fax machines, the Bundestag press office announced in response to a dpa enquiry.

The Bundestag administration has ensured that all work processes and activities for which fax machines were previously used can now be carried out completely digitally, the press office said.

"The fax machines have therefore been dismantled in recent weeks."

In November last year, the Budget Committee called on the Bundestag administration to remove all fax machines from its premises by June 30, 2024, at the latest.

Some of the machines still standing around are to be collected by employees from the IT warehouse over the next few days. However, the Bundestag plans to continue to have a fax number where it can still be reached for enquiries from citizens, for example. The messages are then to be digitized accordingly.

The move was long overdue, said the parliamentary secretary of the Free Democrats (FDP) parliamentary group, Torsten Herbst.

A modern Bundestag must consistently continue the digitalization of communication, he said. "In recent years, visitors have repeatedly wondered why there are still fax machines outside the committee meeting rooms."