When goose farmer Iris Tapphorn in Lohne, Lower Saxony, transports down and feathers after slaughter to the place where they are processed, she uses a hand truck.

Elsewhere this may be a nonsense. But not in Germany: the farmer’s wife doesn’t just need proof of expertise and a transport number for her hand truck. You must also keep a logbook.

To manage her fields, Tapphorn needs several official apps – “to control the control of the control,” says the farmer. The farmer uploads information about how much fertilizer she uses where several times because various authorities want to know about it. But at the same time they are apparently unable to pass on the information.

When toads stop housing construction

In his report series “How are you doing, Germany?” On Sat.1, presenter Paul Ronzheimer tackled the mammoth topic of “bureaucratic madness”. He reports on three communities in Schleswig-Holstein that have been hoping for a cycle path since 1974 – also because the contract for it first had to be put out to tender across Europe.

In Berlin-Pankow, a natterjack toad is holding up urgently needed housing construction because the relocation of these capital reptiles has been keeping the administration busy for years.

“The bureaucracy can now only be tolerated with satire,” says Tübingen’s mayor Boris Palmer. “Every day something new comes across my desk that makes me think, who would think of something like that?”

For example, the ladder representative in authorities, whose job it is to regularly check ladders for safety. Or the obligation to calculate the snow load for a summer hut so that summer parties remain protected from suddenly falling snow masses.

That’s how expensive bureaucracy is for us

All of this can be found funny. But it isn’t. The ifo Institute calculated in 2024 that Germany is losing 146 billion euros in economic output every year due to excessive administrative requirements. 418 million euros in bureaucratic costs arise annually in agriculture and forestry.

Amounts that the German economy can no longer afford. The federal government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) has therefore actually made reducing bureaucracy a top priority: the goal is to reduce bureaucracy costs by 25 percent by 2029.

With a knife into the administrative jungle?

Given the Schildbürger examples in “How are you, Germany?” you either want to bury your head in the sand and cry – or grab a chainsaw. Because in view of the administrative proliferation that is paralyzing Germany, only a radical change seems to help: get rid of everything – and start from scratch.

So do we need the chainsaw? Palmer waves it off: “I want to do it with the surgical knife.” Because rules and laws are fundamentally important; they create reliability and prevent misuse. Germany’s problem, on the other hand, is over-regulation.

“This leads to frustration, and with frustration, trust disappears,” says Ronzheimer. And the unrest is growing: one in four administration officials has already experienced violence in their job. Frustration makes fists fly faster.

Wildberger’s fight against the concrete mountain

What can be done? Ronzheimer wants to know exactly that from Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger, former business boss. For example, the commissioner system has become somewhat independent, and he now wants to eliminate this.

Because to check whether a ladder is safe: “You don’t need an agent for that.” Boris Palmer in Tübingen can breathe a sigh of relief. Wildberger’s bad news: “The mountain of concrete that we have to remove is tough.”

Nothing happens quickly here, after all, the rules and regulations have evolved over decades: “There is no single switch that you can flip.” He has a few things “in the pipeline” that are promising. For example, online car registrations, 24-hour company formations and the reduction of reporting requirements.

How honest is the desire to reduce bureaucracy?

Anyone who hears such things must be afraid: drops on extremely hot stones. The administrative thicket that has grown over decades cannot be cleared with a kitchen knife or surgical steel.

In truth, politics loves bureaucracy. The fact that each federal state has its own rules and regulations may hinder digitalization – but it ensures that the federal kings have their special role.

In addition, every rule and every law secures civil servant positions, because regulations ultimately have to be monitored. The administrative apparatus has long since become a closed system. Why would he pull the plug himself?

By the way, Karsten Wildberger doesn’t have any tips for Gänse landlady Iris Tapphorn and her hand truck problem. “There is some discretion,” he says vaguely. This won’t matter to the farmer’s wife: she will simply forego keeping a logbook. And so far it’s doing quite well.