Wegner: Relationship of trust with Hundt "permanently destroyed"

Berlin's governing mayor Kai Wegner has justified the dismissal of his short-term digital state secretary Matthias Hundt with a permanent loss of trust. "The relationship of trust has been permanently disturbed, it was and is permanently destroyed," said the CDU politician in the House of Representatives.

In response to a question from a member of parliament as to why the Senate had accepted that Hundt, who comes from Dresden, had withdrawn his own request for dismissal, Wegner referred to civil service law. "Unfortunately, these civil service regulations apply," he said.

Only in office for a short time

The state secretary, who was only appointed by Wegner in mid-March, had initially asked for his dismissal a week ago after only two and a half months in office, but then withdrew the request. The Senate then dismissed him last Tuesday. He will receive around 50,700 euros in transitional pay, which he would not have been entitled to if he had been dismissed at his own request.

Investigation in Dresden

In the previous week, it had become known that the Dresden public prosecutor's office was investigating the insolvency of one of Hundt's companies. According to the Dresden public prosecutor's office, insolvency proceedings were opened for the assets of Hundt's consulting company SDC Sachsen Digital Consulting GmbH on November 25, 2025. Hundt's lawyer stated that his client was not guilty of any wrongdoing. Hundt had reached an agreement with all key parties affected by the insolvency. The presumption of innocence applies.

Wegner under pressure

Hundt, who was born in Dresden in 1969, was only appointed Chief Digital Officer and State Secretary for Digitization and Administrative Modernization in the Berlin Senate Chancellery in mid-March. He succeeded Martina Klement, who moved to the Brandenburg state government as Minister of Economic Affairs.

Wegner is under pressure over the appointment. The opposition accuses him of not having sufficiently checked Hundt's suitability and professional background before appointing him. "You have obviously left such an important office to an impostor and a phoney," said Left Party parliamentary group leader Tobias Schulze in the Berlin House of Representatives, addressing Wegner.

Greens parliamentary group leader Werner Graf spoke of a personnel matter "that should not have happened like this". AfD parliamentary group leader Kristin Brinker said: "It is unacceptable for someone to be appointed to public office without any examination of their qualifications and past performance."

Florian Hauer took over Hundt's previous duties in addition to his activities as Berlin's plenipotentiary to the federal government and State Secretary for Federal and European Affairs.