Innovation dialogue connects Vienna and Berlin

As part of their trip to Berlin, Peter Hanke, Executive City Councillor of Finance and Business, and Walter Ruck, President of the Vienna Economic Chamber, visited the GovTech Campus Deutschland in Berlin to exchange ideas on digital administrative innovations.

Over the past two years, Berlin has become a dynamic technology hub. This has significantly increased global interest in collaborations since 2024. The GovTech Campus Deutschland connects start-ups, researchers and public administrators to develop future-oriented solutions.

Shaping digitalisation together at the GovTech Campus

During the visit to the GovTech Campus, the Berlin experts presented the importance of cooperation between local authorities and the technology scene for the digitalisation of administration. With the GovTech Campus, the federal state and local governments have created an opportunity to bring together innovative companies, start-ups and organisations from technology, research, public administration and civil society on neutral ground.

GovTech Campus thus serves as a platform and role model for bringing together representatives from a wide range of institutions in the field of digitalisation, enabling continuous exchange, identifying current trends at an early stage and developing them further, as well as providing impetus and public discussion. The GovTech Campus also shares the building with the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Campus.

Visit to the City of Vienna International Office in Berlin

Peter Hanke, Executive City Councillor of Finance and Business, and Walter Ruck, President of the Vienna Economic Chamber, met with Austria's ambassador Michael Linhart and Austria's business delegate Michael Scherz (Advantage Austria) at the International Office of the City of Vienna. The office offered insights into Vienna's diverse activities in Berlin, including administrative exchanges, delegation visits, events and media work.

For the City of Vienna and its employees, all of this means not only knowledge transfer, but also the acquisition of expertise and sustainable, transnational networking. More than 200 employees from various administrative areas of both cities have already been actively involved in the exchange. Ambassador Linhart therefore acknowledged the excellent networking of the International Office of the City of Vienna in Berlin and thanked them for their cooperation. Executive City Councillor Hanke also sees the International Office as an important contribution to Vienna's international positioning and wants to continue to support the inter-city activities and the work of the Office in the future.