COVID: How Germany forgot its most important agency

Hope for the best, plan for the worst. That might be a fitting motto for Germany's Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK). Its job is to prepare the country for, and protect it from disasters.

Despite its life-saving role, the BBK has had a temperamental history. Founded more than 50 years ago, at the height of the Cold War, it was dissolved in 2001, only to be reestablished three years later. The agency that deals with once-in-a-century disasters took a backseat to those dealing with everyday matters.

A risk analysis was drawn up in 2012, in coordination with the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's public health authority, which now reads like blueprints for the coronavirus pandemic: An Asian virus sweeping Europe in three waves, causing shortages in medical supplies and protective equipment.

That plan was left in a drawer largely to be forgotten.

A fresh start

In July 2020, the Left party in the German parliament, the Bundestag, asked the government whether it had responded to the findings in that risk analysis by ordering production of protective equipment for the population. The federal government responded that it "had no knowledge of any measures taken by the federal states ... within the scope of their responsibility for health and disaster protection."

Given the division of powers between federal and state governments, the BBK — a federal authority with 400 employees and 18 helicopters — finds itself with little authority to act.

Nine million people in Germany have the BBK's NINA app on their phones, which warns them about dangers like extreme weather events and natural disasters in their area. This includes corona-related information, such as infection rates and the latest rules.

The app is the agency's biggest contribution to fighting the pandemic, Greens MP Irene Mihalic told DW, and she would like to see more. The BKK's expertise "has been hardly used," she said. "I would have liked to see the BBK get to take on more responsibility."

Armin Schuster, who has led the BBK since the fall, is hopeful that the BBK can become one-stop shopping for disaster response.

Schuster has put forward an eight-point plan to change that, in conjunction with the Federal Interior Ministry, which he told DW he hopes to put at least part of that plan into action before September's general elections.

"The assumption we're working on is that we can provide a complete picture of the total capacity, resources, and readiness of all involved, regardless if at federal, state or local level, as well as aid organizations," he said.

As it stands, that picture is messy, with different authorities responsible for their own aspects of the pandemic, neither reporting to nor learning from the other.

Realizing Schuster's goal would require the federal government fully taking on the job of disaster response, says Green Party politician Mihalic. Chancellor Angela Merkel has floated this idea, and Mihalic pointed to the Federal Criminal Police Office as an example of how it can be done. The federal law enforcement agency deals with threats to the whole country, such as terrorism, without stepping on the toes of local and state law enforcement.

Renewed relevance

 "The BBK needs to finally assume its role as the central authority," Sandra Bubendorfer-Licht, an MP with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), told DW. Despite certain strengths, a federal system offers, "when it comes to speed, efficiency, and clout, we need coordination and someone to step up."

Such a restructuring of federal power would require a constitutional change, which would also have to pass the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament that represents the states.

Now the Federal Health Ministry has tapped the BBK to step in to help build up a strategic reserve of medical equipment. This is reminiscent of the work the agency did in 2012, which at the time went nowhere.

This article has been adapted from German.

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