New ID law aims to help reduce ‘digital shyness’ in Germany

More public services to go online, encouraging Germans to move away from paper forms and faxes

Germany's infamously unwieldy and old-fashioned bureaucracy is to be given a welcome digital boost with a new law to make electronic identification easier and more efficient.

Whether registering a new residency, a baby or a car, or applying for child support or a driving licence, German citizens will in future be able to do so by mobile phone in combination with an existing identity card.