To prepare for awarding the 2017 Reinhard Mohn Prize on the topic “Smart Country – Connected. Intelligent. Digital.” the project team took research trips to Estonia, Sweden, Austria, and Israel. A number of key figures help to compare the four countries visited with each other and with Germany.

Estonia is considered a pioneer in the area of digitization. People there benefit from a wide range of digital solutions – solutions that are easily accessible and can be used by anyone. We had a look at how things are done on site. Why has digitization in Estonia been so successful?

What does Smart Country mean? Does Germany already have a digital infrastructure? What needs to happen to make Germany more digital? Who needs to get involved for this to happen? Four questions we asked Jörg Dräger (a member of the board at the Bertelsmann Stiftung).