Background and concept of the initiative
Trust in democracy and state institutions largely depends on how citizens experience their government in daily life and the effectiveness of political processes. According to a 2024 survey by the German Civil Servants' Association (dbb), nearly 70% of citizens believe that the state is overwhelmed by its responsibilities, and trust in its capacity to act is at a historic low.
To address these fundamental challenges, Media Executive Julia Jäkel, law expert and former Constitutional Court President Andreas Voßkuhle, and former Federal Ministers Thomas de Maizière and Peer Steinbrück launched the “Initiative for an Effective State”. The initiative was under the patronage of German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The initiative developed actionable reform plans to improve Germany’s state efficiency. An interim report was presented to German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and officially published on 12 March at the Bundespressekonferenz. The final report and recommendations were published on 14 July 2025 and incorporated the perspectives of diverse social groups, researchers and students at the Hertie School and Bucerius Law School, as well as managers and employees of the public administration. Graduates of Bucerius Law School, the Hertie School and the Mercator Fellowship on International Affairs also contributed to the reform proposals as representatives of younger generations. The press release about the final report can be found here.
The initiative’s founders were supported in their work by four renowned foundations: Gemeinnützige Hertie-Stiftung, Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Stiftung Mercator GmbH, and ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS.
Goals
The initiative aimed to strengthen the functionality of the German state by identifying obstacles within public administration and political decision-making processes and proposing necessary steps for reform. After the 2025 federal election, precise reform proposals initiated by prominent figures will serve as valuable guidance and inspiration for future governments. To this end, the initiators invited more than 50 experts from various fields to collaborate with them in seven focus areas to discuss what needs to change.
The Initiative for an Effective State was also expanded to include a stakeholder process. This process was intended both to ensure broad implementation of the proposals and to leverage the networks of the four supporting foundations for broader impact. Alongside this, the initiative seeked to highlight the role of foundations as key actors in state reform and to promote the inclusion of public administration reform topics within academic research.
- Security and resilience | Led by Thomas de Maizière
- Public administration and federalism | Led by Andreas Voßkuhle
- Digital state | Led by Thomas de Maizière and Julia Jäkel
- Germany’s competitiveness as a business location | Led by Julia Jäkel
- Climate | Led by Andreas Voßkuhle
- Social affairs and education | Led by Peer Steinbrück
- Conditions for successful societal change | Led by Peer Steinbrück
Click here to see the list of experts on each Working Group.
Media highlights
Tagesschau | 12.03.2025: Wie der Staat handlungsfähiger werden soll
Süddeutsche Zeitung | 12.03.2025: Vertraue deinen Bürgern
Zeit Online | 12.03.2025: Diese Vorschläge sollen Deutschland aus der Lähmung befreien
ZDF Heute | 12.03.2025: Initiative gibt Empfehlungen für Staatsreform
Tagesspiegel | 04.03.2025: Bündnis ruft zu tiefgreifender Reform auf
Head Office members at the Hertie School Centre for Digital Governance
Contact: [email protected]
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Martin Klingst, Managing Director
Klingst is a lawyer and journalist; he studied law in Freiburg, Hamburg, and Geneva (completing both state exams). As a Research Assistant to Professor Ingo von Münch, a constitutional and administrative law scholar at the University of Hamburg, he was exposed early on to topics surrounding state functionality. In 1987, he switched to journalism, starting at NDR, then moving to the German Allgemeines Sonntagsblatt, and eventually spending around two and a half decades at the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT, where he served as a legal affairs commentator, reporter, head of politics, US correspondent, and correspondent in the Berlin capital bureau. After leaving DIE ZEIT, he was asked by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to temporarily lead his Department for Strategic Communication and Speeches from 2020 to 2021. Since autumn 2021, Martin Klingst has been working on various projects for think tanks and foundations. In autumn 2023, he was a Fellow at Harvard University. -
Gerhard Hammerschmid, Academic Director
Hammerschmid is Professor of Public and Financial Management at the Hertie School. For over 25 years, he has focussed on public administration reform, publishing extensively on topics such as digitalisation in administration, performance-oriented governance, and management and human resources in the public sector, with a strong international comparative perspective. Hammerschmid is the Academic Director of the Institute for the Public Sector e.V. and has participated in major EU-funded research projects (COCOPS, LIPSE, EUPACK, TROPICO, RADAR) on public administration reform over the past 15 years. At the Hertie School, he served as Programme Director of the Executive Master of Public Administration and was the founding Director of the Centre for Digital Governance. Before joining the Hertie School, he worked at the Institute for Public Management at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and was responsible for implementing restructuring and public administration reforms in the Secretariat General of an Austrian federal ministry. Gerhard Hammerschmid studied business administration at the University of St. Gallen and earned his PhD at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. In 2021, Apolitical named Hammerschmid one of the "100 most influential academics in government."