Directory of Public Administration Services (DVDV)

Secure and legally compliant data exchange throughout Germany

✓ Federal application of the IT Planning Council
✓ Ensuring the security and integrity of data
✓ Specialist procedures know how to reach each other and communicate securely thanks to DVDV

The German Administrative Services Directory (DVDV) is the cross-disciplinary and cross-administrative infrastructure component for the secure and reliable addressing of automated services and specialized procedures for communication between and with public administration authorities in Germany. This enables e-government transactions to be carried out on the basis of service-oriented architectures in a secure and legally binding manner. The DVDV is provided in a cooperative operator model by the (German) Federal Government, federal states and local authorities and is being further developed as a product of the IT Planning Council under the joint responsibility of the Federal Government. It is open to all electronic public administration services that are processed automatically in the form of machine-2-machine communication.

Communication is XML-based and is secured via the secure OSCI transport standard.

DVDV 1 was launched in January 2007 and was the first service to implement cross-state data transmission in accordance with the Registration Law Framework Act. In the meantime, a total of around 130 services and specialist procedures have been connected. These include, for example, the civil status, registration, foreigners, passport and ID card systems. The central DVDV-Bundesmaster is operated by the ITZBund and was created and maintained jointly by Governikus and Dataport.

Further information can be found on the project page at ITZBund.

Man with a laptop on his knees looks into the distance smiling

This is what the DVDV stands for

Open interfaces

These allow manufacturers of specialist procedures to freely choose their development technologies and runtime environments.

Current status

The directory provides a flexible, future-proof, state-of-the-art version of the directory service.

Scalability and fast implementation

DVDV is scalable and the requirements of new e-government processes and EU standards can be implemented quickly.

Successful transfer of the DVDV 2.0 project to productive operation

The DVDV 2.0 control project was launched in order to comply with all technical developments, changes in the legal framework (in particular e-government laws and IT-NetzG), but also European developments (including large-scale pilots such as SPOCS and PEPPOL) and to expand the existing infrastructure in a sustainable and future-proof manner. Following an analysis and conception phase, DVDV 2.0 was newly developed and rolled out together with Dataport under the consortium leadership of Governikus.

In a three-stage transition model from the end of October to the end of November 2019, the federal and a total of 14 state servers with all connected services and specialist procedures were converted nationwide from DVDV 1 to DVDV 2.0 using the existing server representative regulations and DVDV 1 was successfully replaced.

The main performance features of DVDV 2.0, in addition to bringing the technology up to date, orientation towards open standards, user-friendliness and performance, can be seen above all in the areas of user group expansion and identity promotion (both national, such as SAFE, and connection options to EU systems). Our experience from the maintenance of the SAFE justice system, as well as our participation in the large-scale pilots SPOCS and PEPPOL, was extremely valuable in the design and implementation of DVDV 2.0.

Young woman in wheelchair talking with other people

DVDV 1 vs. DVDV 2.0

The main changes compared to DVDV 1 briefly summarized:

New development based on current technologies and conceptual innovations
Inclusion of additional communication protocols
Introduction of a web-based information client
Improvement of user-friendliness for the maintaining authorities
Conversion of the maintenance client to a web-based application
Test systems for the development of business process applications
Extension of the user groups to include participants from outside the administration
Replacement of LDAP
Preparation of the system to support e-government processes and for connection to central European service directories
Preparation of identity management for trust domains
Access/connection via the Internet and additionally via the connection network according to § 3 IT-NetzG

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