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Now comes the super election year 2021. There are elections not only in the federal government, but in six countries - and that in the middle of an epochal crisis.
As challenging as this time is, it must not paralyze us.
We need to find answers to the very fundamental questions that the virus has raised.
And these answers must and will be shaped by a digital awakening.
It is not a question of whether we want a real digital breakthrough or not.
It's about the how, the question of which digitization we want and how we shape it.
We have to define our role in a world that has changed as much in the past few months as it has otherwise in a decade.
The pandemic has triggered an unprecedented boost for digitization - but also very clearly demonstrated our deficits.
It is already clear that the digital advances we have made in and because of the crisis will outlast Corona.
We are at the beginning of a new decade.
This decade is digital.
Politics must address four major issues.
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1. Digital sovereignty.
Germany and Europe must draw the consequence from the increasing protectionism of the past few years to become an independent, strong, self-confident, digitally sovereign player in the digital space.
The one-sided dependence on large digital platforms and technology imports has made us vulnerable.
Digital technologies have been misused as a means of political leverage, and that must end.
The German and European response to these threatening scenarios is the concept of digital sovereignty and are projects such as the GAIA-X cloud initiative that we must continue to promote.
2. Digital participation.
Digitization concerns everyone.
But one in four feels left behind, many are scared and do not understand the digital world.
That is questionable, if not to say: dangerous for social cohesion and economic prosperity.
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In the whole breadth of society, more digital competence is needed.
The state and companies are challenged here, but each individual is also required.
Digital education has to go far beyond schools and reach people of all age groups and life situations.
3. Sustainability.
Ambitious climate goals and accelerated digitization are not a contradiction - on the contrary.
We have to think and approach climate protection, sustainability and digitization together.
The potential for our country is huge:
With a consistent digitalization of industrial production and mobility, of buildings and our working environment, CO2 emissions can be reduced by 120 million tons of CO2 annually by 2030 - largely without a dispute or distribution battle, but solely through a massive digital boost in efficiency.
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4. Resilience to crises.
Anyone who was well positioned digitally before the pandemic will get through the crisis better, whether in companies, schools or town halls.
In the public sector in particular, digitization is practiced crisis prevention.
The Corona warning app is an example for better or for worse: On the one hand, digital technologies can support, modernize and replace administrative structures that have grown over decades.
On the other hand, the app controversy has shown that too often digital skeptics and too rarely digital doers set the direction.
We can do it better, more courageously and more decisively.
The state and administration must be rethought and turned inside out from the ground up: citizen-oriented, service-oriented and entirely digital.
If we base our digital policy on the principles of participation, sovereignty, sustainability and resilience, that is also the best economic and climate policy.
Digitization is not a dispensable extra, it is an absolute must.
Now we are all asked to turn the 2020s into a digital decade.
Achim Berg is President of the Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (Bitkom).