[4gotunameagain]

Your opinions about these devices are valid, but I highly doubt that any other country is so stuck to physical mail as is Germany.

To the point that I wonder how it is still functioning.

Only one country away: Denmark.

You are provided with a state issued secure email address for all official communication. No paper. Minimal environmental impact. No looking through the 2013 brief to find a paper from the finanzamt.

[ahartmetz]

> To the point I wonder how it is still functioning.

It's a symptom of other dysfunction alright, but mail did and does work, so the superficial answer is: same as it always did?

When I read about banking in the US involving checks and bills, I don't say "the system is collapsing", it's just... an aspect that sucks.

[4gotunameagain]

Of course mail did and does work.

Horses did work, and would still work if we still used them.

But for an official service to necessitate a physical form lettered to them, that is simply unnecessary overhead for the individual, for society, and for the environment.

[account42]

I'd rather have to rely on physical mail than have to rely on a smartphone or other digital device for dealing with my government to be honest. Better to have the choice of course but if it would be only one then the former might be an inconvenience but the latter can turn into a real nightmare.

[account42]

FWIW you can do your taxes online in Germany as well. That includes digital communications (even if they still send you a hardcopy).

[ce4]

I disagree, there are lots of other countries that have this. Japan recently got rid of floppies, for example[0]. Most of all, germany is full of doomsday thinking and complaints like this one, which i see often here when HN covers esp. german topics

Edit: here's some proper example why paper is not all that bad to have, and actually beneficial in some cases (reverse engineering of Ticketmaster online-only tickets, bound to app)[1]

[0]: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-declares-vi...

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40906148

[throw092309]

I am in EU country that has similar system, but it has some problems:

- keeping verifiable trail for digital documents is difficult. You have to go to notary, and print verified copy at cost of 1$ per page. Old paper system just sends you hard verified copy for free.

- there is a fiction of delivery for digital mail.

- digital documents get deleted from mail box after 6 months. There is paid version that preserves them. There is no way to archive them outside of government servers, because signature trail expires.

- good luck with using digital documents at the court, there are laws, but those are unenforceable. Your fancy digital doc may just get thrown out as a fake.

- government owns all servers, and may just decide to delete some digital documents.

In short new "digital" system is buggy, cumbersome, abd very expensive if you want safety and reliability. Cost of paper is negligible.