Berlin, July 14, 2026
A massive IT outage has largely paralyzed Berlin's courts since Monday morning; affected are all local courts (Amtsgerichte), the Higher Regional Court (Kammergericht), the two regional courts (Landgerichte), and the Moabit Criminal Court.
According to the Senate Department of Justice, the disruption has persisted since 6:30 a.m. and, according to a spokesperson for the Kammergericht Berlin, affects the entire ordinary jurisdiction of the capital. Staff and judges can no longer log on to the servers of the state-owned IT service provider ITDZ, cannot access electronic case files, and cannot read emails. At midday, all employees were sent home, as a court spokesperson said.
Cause: Licensing Issue at the IT Service Provider
The ITDZ cited a licensing issue for interface software required for server login as the cause. According to the Tagesspiegel, the ITDZ informed by email that the error had been identified — but those affected could not retrieve this message due to the outage itself. In the late afternoon, a spokesperson for the Senate Department of Justice confirmed the ongoing outage; on Tuesday morning, the ITDZ said it had no new information on the current situation.
Stefan Schifferdecker, co-state chairman of the German Judges' Association in Berlin, spoke of a temporary standstill in the administration of justice. He told the German Press Agency: „Wir haben einen vorübergehenden Stillstand der Rechtspflege. Die Richterschaft ist wütend, da wir unsere Arbeit nicht machen können. Wir behelfen uns mit Stift und Papier, verhandeln ohne Akten." Schifferdecker pointed out that the consequences are particularly critical in criminal proceedings because statutory detention deadlines cannot be met; in the worst case, defendants would have to be released from pretrial detention.