Karsten Wildberger: “I don’t like having to spend a long time fiddling around with things.”

Karsten Wildberger simply can't find it. The 55-year-old usually wears a health ring on his index finger that monitors his bodily functions: heart rate, steps, stress levels, things like that. He rummages in his briefcase, in the inside pocket of his jacket, but it's simply not there. Never mind, it'll show up. Wildberger has been Germany's first Digital Minister for eight weeks now. Before Friedrich Merz appointed him to his cabinet, the physicist with a doctorate was a manager at Vodafone and T-Mobile, on the board of Eon, and most recently head of the electronics chain Mediamarkt Saturn.