The future of the DZM, a national center for future mobility, is more than unknown. The homepage currently only states: “The Deutsche Zentrum Mobilität der Zukunft (DZM) will be restructured and expanded in accordance with the agenda of the new federal administration.”
In the summer of 2021, there was a festive founding ceremony in Munich with many prominent figures from Bavarian state politics. At that time, amidst the campaigning efforts for seats in the German parliament, it is said that around 500 million euros was invested in this project by the federal government. DZM was to function as the umbrella organization for the four ITZ centers (see H2-international Oct. 2021).
Now, things are looking very different. The answer from the German transport ministry to H2-international’s inquiry was: “The concept of the Deutsche Zentrum Mobilität der Zukunft (DZM) is currently being revised. For now, this process is taking place at the Bundesministerium für Digitales und Verkehr (BMDV, German transport ministry). Since no founding office is required for the period of concept revision, this has been temporarily replaced by a contact point.“
The newspaper Handelsblatt had previously reported that the DZM founding committee has meanwhile ceased its work. It went on to say that the attempts by the previous federal transport minister, Andreas Scheuer, to shield the DZM from the grasp of future ministers by creating a type of “Treuhand-Stiftung” (fiduciary trust) did not help. His successor, Volker Wissing, has distanced himself from the DZM, because there has not been anything worthy of being called a concept so far. There’s at most a vague sketch.
The BMDV notified H2-international, however: “Further remarks regarding the content and orientation of the DZM are therefore only possible after the revision phase. The budgetary appropriations have also been adjusted accordingly.” That all tranches up to 2026 have already been cancelled, as, according to Handelsblatt, BMDV parliamentary secretary Daniela Kuckert is to have reported, has not been confirmed by the BMDV as of yet.
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