The research of the LOEWE center emergenCITY is to be consolidated through the establishment of a National Center for Digital Resilience in Disasters in Darmstadt. This plan was announced by Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser and Hesse’s Digital Minister Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus in a letter of intent at the end of March. The center is intended to create a national exchange platform that will also raise the profile of digital resilience internationally.

Broad Media Response

Various media picked up on the project: On 24.03.2025, Deutschlandfunk published an article that Darmstadt is selected to host a center for digital resilience. The Darmstädter Echo emphasized the function of emergenCITY as a model for scientific exchange. The online edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Hit Radio FFH and the Frankfurter Allgemeine published the press release of the German Press Agency (dpa).

The Frankfurter Rundschau wrote that the center could bring together operators of critical infrastructures, authorities, companies and science. The Hessenschau focused in particular on the functions of the center and the reason for the choice of location. Darmstadt’s Mayor Hanno Benz (SPD) said:

“Darmstadt, as a city of science and a nationwide hotspot for IT security and data protection, is undoubtedly a good and obvious choice for the establishment of a center for digital resilience in the event of a crisis”.

The topic was also covered in various online media.

In summary, the media reported on the planned center for resilience as an urgently needed development to ensure the reliability of digital infrastructures even in crises. This is particularly evident in Nancy Faeser’s frequently quoted sentence:

“We need to make Germany more resilient and crisis-proof”.