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The conclusion of the Scientific Advisory Board of Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) could not really surprise anyone.
But above all the clarity and choice of words is unusual for an advisory body of the federal government.
The professors who belong to the advisory board dealt with digitization in Germany in their report presented on Tuesday - especially against the background of the experience of the corona pandemic.
It was clear that the results of digitization in Germany would not be positive.
But even the scientists admit that they are still surprised by the extent.
Arrears relentlessly disclosed
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“I didn't think it was possible that fax machines would play such an important role,” said Dietmar Harhoff, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition.
Germany is lagging behind other industrial nations in terms of digitization, especially in the healthcare sector and in schools.
"The corona pandemic has relentlessly revealed Germany's lag in digital transformation in many areas," the report says.
"The pandemic has shown deficits wherever German institutions - administrations, companies, schools, universities, courts - have long been unable to fulfill their long-recognized and extensively discussed tasks to digitize processes."
There is no shortage of examples.
Many health authorities still transmit the current infection numbers by fax.
Even in many schools, digital teaching still does not work after months.
“During the pandemic, these weaknesses massively hindered an effective political response to the crisis and the limitation of the economic damage,” write the professors.
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The cause of the country's digital backwardness is not primarily a lack of money.
Instead of a lack of funds, the problems were based on "various forms of organizational failures" that politicians must remedy, according to the report.
"The development in schools and public administration in Germany has shown that the sustainable use of digital, data-based processes and procedures requires rethinking previous processes and new management approaches."
The experts also criticize that the pandemic first had to show what should have been done a long time ago.
"Much of what was achieved in the Corona crisis would have been possible beforehand," said the chairman of the advisory board, Klaus Schmidt, from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.
His colleague Stefan Bechtold from ETH Zurich cited the significantly increased home office rate as an example.
In Germany there is still a "tradition of presence culture" that prevented many flexible working models before the pandemic.
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In view of this, the scientists warned against returning to old behavior patterns after the pandemic.
The risk of this is lower for companies than for authorities.
The crisis has also shown that too strict data protection is slowing down digitization and the fight against pandemics.
"Data protection is perceived as an absolute value in the public discussion," said Bechtold.
But that is wrong, it is always a matter of weighing up different interests.