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Disclaimer

The contents of this website are researched and published with the greatest possible care. We endeavour to provide up-to-date, accurate and comprehensive information. Errors may nevertheless occur. Despite all the care we take, no liability can thus be accepted for the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of these webpages. In particular, the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport can assume no liability whatsoever for any damage or other consequences arising from the direct or indirect use of the contents provided. Please send any information and corrections to presse@bmdv.bund.de.

We would like to avoid technical disruption wherever possible. However, errors may occur when data are digitized. We cannot assume any liability for interruptions or other disruptions caused by incorrectly created files or incorrectly structured formats.

The Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport is not responsible for the contents of third party websites that are accessed via external links on this website and explicitly distances itself from any material that could give rise to criminal or civil liability or that may be offensive to some people.

The provider of a linked website will assume sole liability for any damage resulting from the use of the website. If the Ministry refers to sites whose contents may be deemed objectionable, please inform the web team. We would also ask you to inform us if the Ministry's own contents are not accurate, up to date or complete. You can contact the web team by using the contact form or at presse@bmdv.bund.de.

The publisher reserves the right, without prior notice, to change, supplement or remove the information provided or to discontinue operation of this website. The publisher is not obliged to update the information on this website.

Legislation (acts and regulations)

The legislation published on this website has been carefully compiled, but does not claim to be up to date, accurate or complete, and no guarantee can be given that it is such.

Acts and regulations are only valid and are only applied in their most recent official version, as published in the relevant official journal (in particular the Federal Law Gazette and the Federal Gazette). Any legal recommendations, information and references are non-binding. They should not be taken as constituting legal advice.

Use of publications

The publications issued by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport must not be used during an election campaign by political parties or by canvassers or electoral assistants for the purpose of canvassing. This applies to Bundestag, Landtag and local elections and elections to the European Parliament.

In particular, distributing the publications during electoral rallies or at information stands of political parties as well as inserting in them or printing/sticking on them party political information or other advertising material constitutes improper use. Nor must they be passed on to third parties for the purpose of canvassing.

Irrespective of when and how these publications have reached the recipient and the number of copies they have received, they must not be used in a way that could suggest that the Federal Government was taking sides in favour of individual political groups, even if no election is due to be held in the near future.

Changing the font size

You can adjust the font size in the browser to meet your own viewing needs.

If you are using Internet Explorer, click on the 'Tools' menu or on the gear icon, then on 'Zoom' and select the size you require.

If you are using Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, you can adjust the text size using the Ctrl + (increase) or Ctrl - (decrease) shortcuts. Press Ctrl and 0 to return to the default size. This shortcut also works on Internet Explorer.

Accessibility

The website of the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport has been designed in accordance with the guidelines of the Ordinance on the Creation of Barrier-Free Information Technology in Accordance with the Act on Equal Opportunities for Disabled Persons (Ordinance on Barrier-Free Information Technology)

However, if you do encounter accessibility problems on our website, please mail us at presse@bmdv.bund.de and tell us where you discovered the error. We will do everything we can to provide you with the information in a form that is suitable for users of assistive technology.

Search function

The Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport offers you a comprehensive search function which can be used to search the entire website for any word or phrase.
To do so, use the quick search at the top of the home page, which will also take you to the advanced search.

You can also refine your search using the following options (the search is not case-sensitive):

  • Date
    Here you can specify a period within which the document was published.
  • Policy area
    Here you can narrow your search to specific policy areas of the Ministry.
  • Format
    This option is useful if you know that you are looking for a press release or publication.
  • AND operator
    If you link two search terms using the AND operator, the search will find those documents that contain both terms. For instance, "transport AND safety" will find those documents in which both terms occur.
  • OR operator
    If you link two search terms using the OR operator, the search will find those documents containing either the first term or the second term. For instance, "transport OR safety" will find all documents in which either "transport" or "safety" or both terms occur.
  • Excluding terms
    If you link two search terms using the NOT operator, you will find documents in which the first term occurs but not the second term. For instance, "transport NOT safety" will find all documents in which "transport" occurs but not "safety"
  • Exact phrase search
    If you put a sentence or a string of words in double quotes (" "), the search will look for this exact phrase. For instance, a search for "frequently asked questions" will find all those documents that provide answers to frequently asked questions on specific subjects and use exactly this phrase.
  • Wildcards
    Wildcards such as (*) for any sequence of letters and (?) for a single letter can be used in the search. The tilde symbol (~) at the end of a single word allows you to perform a fuzzy search.

Reading, saving and printing PDF files

To read PDF files, you need a PDF reader. PDF readers are available as free software and enable you to view and print PDF documents on all common operating systems. If such software has not been installed on your computer, you can obtain information here about various PDF readers and download them free of charge.

Wikipedia: List of PDF software

If no PDF reader has been installed on your computer, you can view PDF documents directly on your browser. If your browser does not support the software, save the file to your hard drive and open the file from there.

If you have problems displaying a PDF document, do not open it directly in your browser. Instead, save it on your computer and open it from there.

To save ("download)" a PDF file to your computer, right-click on the file and then left-click on ‘Save Target As’. Select the directory/folder in which you wish to save the file and confirm by clicking on the ‘Save’ button.

If you want to print a PDF file, open the file in your browser and then select the ‘Print’ option in your browser.

Please note that some of the downloads on our pages are read-only versions.

Deleting cookies

To be able to offer you certain functions on our website, we use cookies (see our privacy statement (linked)). If you wish to remove any personal data or settings that might have been stored, you can delete the cookies.

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE)
    If you are using Microsoft IE as a browser, click on the ‘Tools’ menu and then on ‘Internet Options’. Click on 'General' and select the ‘Privacy’ tab. You can then decide how your browser handles cookies.
  • Microsoft Edge
    Select and click on the symbol with the three dots in the top right-hand corner of the Edge browser. Select 'Settings'. Scroll to 'Clear browsing data' in the menu and click on 'Choose what to clear'. Decide which website data you wish to clear and select 'Cookies and saved website data'. Click on 'Clear' to confirm.
  • Mozilla Firefox
    If you are using Mozilla Firefox, select 'Open Menu' (symbol in the top right-hand corner with three lines) and then 'Options'. In the new window that opens, click on 'Privacy'. Under 'History' select 'Firefox will: Use custom settings for history'. New menu items will appear. Select 'Show Cookies'. In the mask that opens, you can search for the cookies you want to remove, select them and remove them by clicking on 'Remove Selected'.
  • Google Chrome
    In Chrome, click on 'More' (3 dots) in the top right-hand corner. In the menu that opens, select 'More tools' and click on 'Clear browsing data'. In the new window that opens, tick the "Cookies and other site and plugin data" box and specify a time frame for which you want to delete the cookies. Continue by clicking on 'Clear browsing data'.

Furter information about the Internet and security

More information about the Internet and security can be found on the Federal Office for Information Security’s website. Among other things, this site contains links to free anti-virus programs.

Picture credits

The source of the photo is normally stated directly below the photo. Photos for which this is not possible for technical or graphic reasons are from the following sources.

Copyright

All contents published on the website of the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (texts, graphics, pictures, layout, etc.) are subject to copyright and may not be used or published elsewhere or by other persons without the prior consent of the photographic team (presse@bmdv.bund.de).

This does not apply to documents that are explicitly available for downloading from the press zone as photos for the press or as part of a press kit to be used for reporting purposes. Here, the terms of use for the relevant documents apply.

Legal effectiveness

This disclaimer is to be considered part of the website that is linked to this page. Should parts of or individual phrases in this text not reflect the current legal situation or no longer reflect it or not completely reflect it, this is without prejudice to the contents and validity of the other parts of the document.