Successful transfer of municipal Sample Data Catalogue to GovData

The current version of the municipal Sample Data Catalogue comprises around 36,000 open datasets from over 500 municipalities in Germany. Given the volume, these data provide insights on various issues. For example, what are the topics on which municipalities have published the most open data? Which regions in Germany are particularly well-represented in the catalogue? Which topics could municipalities begin with, if they have little experience with open data?

“The Sample Data Catalogue serves not only as an overview, but also as a tool for strategic decision-making in the open data sector at the local level,” explains  Mario Wiedemann, head of the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Data for Society project. “It helps local authorities to categorize their open data offerings, identify potential and compare themselves with other municipalities.”

In recent years, the Sample Data Catalogue has supported local governments in various initiatives relating to open data. Berlin’s Open Data Information Office, for example, used the catalogue as the basis for a list of the 100 most relevant open datasets for the city’s community. To create the list, an earlier version of the catalogue, which contained around 300 sample datasets, was condensed into 100 datasets based on various criteria. 

“The sample data catalogue serves as inspiration for newcomers, a compass for professionals and a benchmark for everyone,” says Thomas Tursics, head of GovData at FITKO, confirming the catalogue’s effectiveness. “It helps identify untapped potential and enables direct comparisons, so that communities can learn from each other and continue to develop.”

Numerous online resources on open data reference the Sample Data Catalogue. In its explanations of the DCAT-AP.de metadata standard, GovData recommends that local authorities use the catalogue. Among other benefits, the catalogue can help smaller municipalities understand which datasets can be published with relatively little effort.

The transfer from the Bertelsmann Stiftung to GovData opens up the possibility of integrating the catalogue into the open data ecosystem used by Germany’s public administrators in an even more structured way, since GovData is one of the key players in this field.

 “FITKO is moving even closer to the local government level,” says Stephan Bartholmei, head of Product Management at FITKO, explaining the reason for the transfer. “The Sample Data Catalogue is not a theoretical concept, but a tool by practitioners for practitioners. Our goal is to lower the barriers to open data as much as possible so that every municipality – regardless of size – can open up its administrative data.”

The Sample Data Catalog for open data was initially released as a prototype in 2019 by the Bertelsmann Stiftung and GovData. This served as the basis for the development of a catalogue for municipalities in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia by the project partners: the Bertelsmann Stiftung, GovData, KDZ – Center for Administrative Research, and the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany. A nationwide version followed in 2021, initially covering around 120 communities.

The Sample Data Catalogue is updated twice a year. The current release, Version 6, includes local-level open data that were available on govdata.de as of June 2025. Data published after that date will be added to the catalogue during a future update.

The Sample Data Catalog is available at musterdatenkatalog.de. Using a data tool on the website, users can view the existing open datasets from selected municipalities as well as the potential offered by open data that have yet to be made available. 

With the transfer to FITKO and GovData, the Sample Data Catalogue will do even more to provide guidance on local-level open data offerings and help develop them further.