Sabine Kuhlmann, Isabella Proeller, Dieter Schiemanke, Jan Ziekow

• The international community of public administration and administrative sciences shows a great interest in the basic features of the German administrative system. The German public administration with its formative decentralisation (called: administrative federalism) is regarded as a prime example of multilevel governance and strong local self-government. Furthermore, over the past decades, the traditional profile of the German administrative system has significantly been reshaped and remoulded through reforms, processes of modernisation and the transformation process in East Germany. Studies on the German administrative system should focus especially on key institutional features of public administration; changing relationships between public administration, society and the private sector; administrative reforms at different levels of the federal system; and new challenges and modernisation approaches, such as digitalisation, open government and better regulation.