Fax ban in authorities: “It will still be a while before the fax dies out”

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“Revolutionary in the 80s”

Photo: Armin Weigel / dpa

SPIEGEL:

Cities and federal states like Bavaria want to finally ban fax machines in authorities. Do you still have one in the office, Mr. Gnegel?

Gnegel:

Yes. However, this is rarely used anymore. Most often when colleagues notice that they haven't submitted their vacation request on time.

SPIEGEL:

Sending a fax is considered a synonym for backwardness. Rightly so?

Gnegel:

I don't think so. There are still people for whom faxing is the easiest way. Similar to how there are still people who write their shopping list by hand and not in an app. This has nothing to do with backwardness. It is primarily authorities who want to shift work from the recipient to the sender.

SPIEGEL:

The fax was once considered avant-garde, right?

Gnegel:

The predecessor, the Bildtelegraph, was already that way. It enabled daily newspapers and magazines to print current photos for the first time at the beginning of the 20th century. When the fax machine came into offices in the 1980s, it was revolutionary. You could suddenly simply put on a written document and boom, the recipient would receive it in the next moment. You just have to imagine: Back then, ministries had tap-proof fax machines in radiation-proof steel cabinets.

SPIEGEL:

The Germans are often said to be the last fax nation. Is that correct?

Gnegel:

I don't have any reliable data on this. But I can well imagine that. As a German, you like to have written confirmation of everything.

SPIEGEL:

Nevertheless, according to surveys, half of German children and young people don't know what a fax machine is.

Gnegel:

We also notice that in our museum. The young people stand in front of it as if it were a relic from a distant, mythical past. They don't even know what to do with it. It's similar with cassette recorders or rotary dial telephones. Although some people might remember that from old films.

SPIEGEL:

The fax machine, on the other hand, was never particularly popular in pop culture.

Gnegel:

We also have a toy collection in which there are lots of toy telephones and toy cell phones. The number of toy fax machines, however, is manageable. I believe we have every model ever produced. There are four or five.

SPIEGEL:

When will the fax machine die?

Gnegel:

That will take a while. Faxing is a cultural technique. People have gotten used to it in their everyday lives. Only when they retire will the fax machine go with them.