Germany’s public sector is well known for its Weberian tradition, bringing up robustness in service delivery but also resistance to reform. This case study gives an overview of the digital transformation of the German public administration, focusing on the most important level of local governments. The complex governance structures influencing the digital transformation of the German public administration will be outlined. It is shown how ideas of strategic management are used to overcome deficits of the traditional rule-based Weberian governance. Based on survey data, it will be argued that this hybridization is not really addressing the core problems of digitization in Germany’s public sector. Deficits of multi-level coordination and a lack of competencies and resources on the local level are the main factors influencing the implementation of e-government. These problems have been increasingly addressed in the last year; nevertheless, it is not clear how Germany’s public sector can catch up with comparable countries.