How long does it take to divorce in your country? In Estonia, the first step of the uncomfortable undertaking can be made in less than a minute — and even without the undesired spouse being present.

"It takes 45 seconds to get to the point where it says submit the divorce application," said Luukas Ilves, until last year the Estonian government's chief information officer

Ilves told DW that divorce application was the last section of public administration that had yet to be digitized, which means the small Baltic state bordering Russia is probably the first fully digitized country in the world.

Even in Estonia, both partners must of course consent to the procedure and be physically present in a meeting with a civil servant who formally ends the marriage. But uptake of the online service is already phenomenal, with about 60% of all divorces in Estonia being initiated via the government's so-called e-divorce platform since its launch last December.

"We all expect convenience, simplicity and security from digital services in the private sector. Why should government services be any different?" said Ilves.

Ilves is the author of a recent studytitled "The End of Bureaucracy," which he compiled in collaboration with the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation, which is affiliated to Germany's Free Democratic Party. The report highlights the differences in digitization policy and what Germany can learn from the more advanced Estonia.

Currently, about 62% of Germans use digital service in administration, while Estonia has an uptake of over 90%, the report said.

Electronic identity verification, for example, is a major issue in the report, as 90% of Estonians use national e-IDs to access government services, compared with less than 10% of Germans. The reason for that is simple, Ilves said. The Estonian software is more user-friendly and provides........

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