Bridging the digital divide: A tiny village smarter than Hong Kong

The Star

08-07-2025

At first glance, Etteln seems like a German village like any other. Single-family homes huddled around the local church, a shooting club, tractors chugging along deserted country roads.
But the community in western Germany, home to some 1,750, proudly considers itself the country's "most digital village".
Last year, Etteln came in first in the Smart City Contest held by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – ahead of Hong Kong in second place.
Despite the fact that this is the 21st century, Germany's rural areas remain notoriously cut off when it comes to the benefits of the digital age. Reception is often poor and broadband Internet lacking, despite repeated promises by successive administrations to close the digital gap.
In 2018, when Etteln's primary school was in danger of being closed down as the population dwindled, villagers decided it was time to take matters into their own hands.
Village chief Ulrich Ahle recalls how families looking to build a home in the countryside kept telling him that Etteln wasn't an option – too cut off from the world, they said.
Today, he can no longer meet the demand for plots, he says.
Born and raised in Etteln, the 62-year-old has been the village chief for some 10 years and one of the driving forces behind the digital transformation – also due to his professional background in IT.
But the most important factor has been the locals themselves, eager to bring about change, Ahle says.
Claudia Günter shows off the Etteln village app in a place smarter than many a big city.
When the coronavirus pandemic brought much of the world to a standstill in 2020 and life increasingly moved online, 65 villagers laid 30 kilometres of fibre optic cable, using tractors and shovels.
Some 3,500 hours of manual work later, every last corner of the village had access to high-speed Internet.
Since then, the village has implemented a plethora of digital pilot projects, mobilising some €1.5mil (RM7.45mil) in public funding.
At the heart of Etteln's digital transformation is the village app, which currently has some 500 active users.
Village boss Ahle shows a group of visitors around town, stopping to show them the hail-a-ride-spot – an inconspicuous-looking bench.
What may not initially seem like a very promising prospect, the concept reliably allows you to catch a ride with someone heading to a neighbouring town.
If you press a number on the keypad that's mounted on the wall above a bench, app users get a notification telling them where the person is looking to go.
Alternatively, you can rent the electric car run by the Etteln Aktiv association online and free of charge.
During a tour, which also includes three big interactive screens placed around town offering information on the village and the wider region, village chief Ahle explains how Etteln got where it is today.
"We don't need to reinvent the wheel. We just need to look at what others have done successfully and adapt it for ourselves," he says.
Thilo Vogt, mayor-elect of a town in central Germany, is visibly impressed.
"The drive of the people here is truly inspiring," he says. He hopes to be able to implement some of the things he saw in Etteln during his term.
When the visitors raise their concerns, Ahle responds with a smile.
Vandalism? "Never happened here." How to deal with scepticism among the population? "We're not taking anything away from people. Our digital services are additions to analogue community life, not replacements." The key to any new project is that it must improve life in the local area, he says.
Etteln reached its biggest milestone yet when creating a digital twin – a virtual copy of the village that is fed with drone images and real-time data.
The digital map can be used to visualise construction plans and simulate flood scenarios, for example, with numerous sensors measuring soil moisture and precipitation.
The aim is also to bring together isolated digital solutions on a shared data platform, says Christine Wegner, project manager responsible for the digital twin at the wider municipality of Borchen.
"Some applications only become apparent when you bring data together," she explains the holistic approach.
Etteln is also well ahead when it comes to the transition to renewables, boasting a particularly large number of wind turbines in the region, while every third roof is equipped with solar panels.
The village produces 34 times the electricity it needs – allowing it to power its digital projects with sustainable electricity stored in an innovative digital battery storage system.
The Etteln data platform is located on a server in the neighbouring town, housed inside a wind turbine.
Several servers are housed in a turbine in Etteln, the outsider village that won the Smart City Award.
European Commission figures show that Germany has much to do compared to many Baltic or Scandinavian countries when it comes to the digitalisation of public services.
"We are simply 10 years behind in terms of development," says village chief Ahle.
But experts say things are moving in the right direction, even in rural areas.
"We are on the right track," says Steffen Hess, head of the research department for digital innovations and smart cities at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE).
He has overseen several projects on digitisation in rural areas.
Aided by subsidies, many municipalities have now built up a good digital infrastructure, he says. "Crises such as the pandemic have shown many people how powerful digitisation can be."
At the same time, Hess says a gap remains between communities that have understood digitalisation as a location factor and those dragging their feet. "In many places, municipalities still have to cope with very small budgets," he notes.
The overall positive development is threatening to stall at the moment because other issues have taken political priority, Hess says.
"We must not lose momentum now; on the contrary, we must understand that the digitalisation of rural areas is a central part of state modernisation."
In Etteln, digital transformation has long since become a self-perpetuating process, thanks to widespread coverage of progress there.
These days, innovators approach him to offer to set up pilot projects on site, not vice versa, says Ahle.
While funding for the digital twin is due to expire in a few months, the village is determined to continue the project.
"All projects are designed in such a way that they can be continued on a voluntary basis if necessary," says Ahle. However, he is also in talks with sponsors, he adds. – dpa