Oh, that's not really an issue, he shows very similar levels of incompetence in both areas.

His predecessors from CDU/CSU also. Infrastructure ministry is dominated by a history of politicians hellbent on kissing the automotive industry's butt...

I second this

Strictly speaking, aren't they both just series' of tubes? /s

Let's join also the ministry of health then! :)

I think the money comes from the same budget, and it's both cases infrastructure. At the end of the day you don't need that much expertise to allocate funds, it's more about politics.

>you don't need that much expertise to allocate funds

You need expertise to allocate funds wisely however.

Digital infrastructure is mostly privatized (and monopolized).

it does kind of make sense if you consider that roads and rail lines are good places to put data cables, and that you have to dig up roads for the cables to be placed. so having the authority do do so within one ministry sounds like a good idea.

Fair point, but they do invoke this ludicrous metaphor of the data highway, also why isn't it then simply called "infrastructure". There are surely other large scale planning decisions that could be subsumed e.g. pipelines, power lines etc.; why would they not be mentioned?

Competence doesn't seem to be a requirement in these positions.

Ultimately they are both "realtime logistics" and the minister better have expertise in longterm public projects then either. But yea, sure they better be seperate.

The infamous "Datenautobahn".

Sounds like a pretty close translation of the "information superhighway".