The German Chancellor abandoned the Internet in favor of pneumatic mail

Scholz fears hacker attacks on secret documents

The German Chancellor’s Office continues to use mailing lists for classified documents. Olaf Scholz does not trust new technologies and prefers pneumatic mail for important decisions for the country. According to German publications, this applies to about a thousand items per month.

Olaf Scholz’s office relies on snail mail for some classified documents.

“As a rule, these are urgent transactions that cannot be transmitted electronically or through secretaries, for example, because they are subject to secrecy or must be signed in the original,” a government spokesman told the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

According to media reports, the building’s piping pneumatic mail system is 1,300 meters long, connecting links from the Chancellor to the Chief of the Chancery, department heads and the Eastern Representative. All important employees are connected with each other through mail. The Federal Office of the Chancellor deliberately distributes certain secret documents within the chamber using pneumatic mail. Equipment is usually hidden in reception areas, in red-brown built-in wooden cabinets.

“There is no system replacement available at this time due to the benefits described,” the spokesperson states. Thus, the office apparently intends to hold its postal station longer than planned. The reason for this is protection against espionage, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. According to statistics published by the newspaper, more than a thousand items a month pass through the mail. And the cost of the operation is 15 thousand euros per year, the office notes. Chancellor Olaf Scholz can be contacted at the chancellery through mailbox number 1, and the cabinet through mailbox number 2, reports Spiegel magazine.

Pneumatic mail was invented in the mid-19th century. By the beginning of the 20th century, networks hundreds of kilometers long appeared in large cities. In 2001, a two-line postal system was integrated into the new Berlin Chancellor’s Office: 36 stations. Since then it has been “in full use,” a government spokesman said.

In previous years, it was repeatedly stated that with the full implementation of the electronic file, the communication system in the Chancellor’s Office, powered by compressed air, should be switched off in 2025, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz vetoed this decision, considering that such a letter forwarding system would better protect against espionage and hacker attacks. According to a government representative, the planned new office building on the other side of the avenue does not have a pneumatic mail system, but plans for communication systems will now have to be reconsidered.