Is Germany a “digital outsider”?

The article is devoted to digitalization in Germany, taking into account the historical context. The scientific novelty and relevance of the study lies in the fact that the German digital media history is examined against the background of the transformation of the media system, mainly after the reunification of the two German states. The scientific significance of the research results is that the following conflict is presented and resolved. On the one hand, Germany has long been ranked among the countries in which multimedia is actively involved in everyday life, and the problem of “digital divide” (digitale Kluft or digitale Spaltung), which caused heated discussion in the world in the mid-1990s not typical for an economically developed country like Germany. On the other hand, in 2018-2019 scientific publications appeared in which the country was presented as a digital outsider, which means that the federal government’s strategy for the development of information and communication technologies has not been properly developed. The author studies digitalization in Germany in the following aspects: historical, substantial and economic, making an attempt to analyze the current situation.