The administration in Mannheim is bringing momentum to the bureaucratic mills with regard to digital strategies – find out why in this interview.

Mannheim was awarded first place in the “Digital Administration” category of the Bitkom Smart City Index. We talked to Thomas Wiesler and Judith Geiser from the City of Mannheim about what makes Mannheim’s administration different from others and how it is bringing momentum to the bureaucratic mills.

Thomas Wiesler, Judith Geiser, tell us your secret: What makes Mannheim different from other administrations?

Wiesler: Our work in Mannheim is very strategy- and goal-oriented, but also action-oriented. This has enabled us to launch important digital projects in recent years, such as the electronic file and electronic invoice processing. We have implemented these as the basis for digitalization in the administration. The Bitkom Smart City Index recognizes the entire administration of the City of Mannheim and thus the efforts of all municipal players who have been working in the various departments in recent years to expand digital services for citizens and municipal employees.

Geiser: Among other things, because last year we were able to successfully celebrate another milestone in digitalization as municipal IT: In March 2019, the municipal council adopted our digital strategy and a catalog of measures comprising almost 40 projects. We took a pragmatic approach here and were able to present a strategy paper within a year with the involvement of employees and citizens together with the administration’s stakeholders. We are currently working flat out to implement the compiled project portfolio.

The Haus & Grund Deutschland association recently reviewed the websites of Germany’s largest cities in terms of their service friendliness. Mannheim did not do well, coming in at 78th place. In terms of citizen service, the city even came in 90th place. How does that fit in with the results of the Smart City Index?

Wiesler: You would have to ask Haus & Grund about that. Neither the ranking nor its background and basis were explained to us, which is why we cannot comment on this.

Geiser: Bitkom examined 81 major cities in 2019 and compared their offerings with more than 7,000 data points. The basis and surveys are set out in the study and can be read publicly. This makes it transparent which digital offerings were evaluated.

Mannheim’s digitalization strategy, which was commissioned in February 2019, is defined by the Mannheim 2030 mission statement “Digitalization, innovation and sustainable value creation”. What is your vision for the city of Mannheim in 2030?

Wiesler: The Mannheim 2030 mission statement was developed in a broad-based participatory process that – supported by funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and Engagement Global with the “Communities in One World” service center – deliberately addressed as many social groups in our city as possible. 2,500 Mannheim residents, companies, institutions, initiatives and associations, universities and self-help groups contributed a large number of suggestions and ideas. For us, the “Mannheim 2030” mission statement contains the central answers to the questions of how the UN’s 17 sustainability goals can be implemented in our city – i.e. at a local level. Mannheim is thus making a very important contribution to a sustainable and fairer world and is taking on a pioneering role internationally.

Geiser: Our Mannheim 2030 is a city that ensures educational equality and prevents poverty. People can participate culturally and socially. We offer a high urban quality of life with adequate security as the basis for a healthy and fulfilling life. We want to be an urban society based on solidarity that lives equality and recognizes and respects the diversity of human identities. Mannheim should become a resilient urban space in which people want to act and live in a climate-conscious and climate-friendly manner. Mannheim fosters international cooperation between cities and promotes municipal development policy.

And as a digital and innovative metropolis, Mannheim 2030 wants to create the conditions for companies of all sizes to realize sustainable and future-proof value creation in a variety of ways and to develop talent and skilled workers. Digital offerings are intended to support climate-friendly mobility. Of course, Mannheim 2030 has a sophisticated digital range of administrative services and protects citizens’ data in an exemplary manner. Free internet, an appealing open data offering and the use and testing of new technologies – including blockchain, IoT and artificial intelligence – expand the digital municipal offering. Mannheim 2030 is therefore a vibrant, healthy and creative city where ideas are implemented and people enjoy living.

You can find the full interview in G+L 4/2020.

Hermes appears in ancient mythology as a figure who organizes transitions and productively links opposites. As a divine mediator between gods and humans, between movement and order as well as between life and death, he embodies central cultural ideas of the Greek world. The mythological figure is particularly suitable for investigating interactions between cult, art and systems of meaning in the ancient world.

The Greek world of gods is characterized by clearly defined responsibilities, but not all deities can be clearly defined. It is precisely those figures that combine several functional areas that open up a differentiated view of ancient worlds of thought and life. In archaic times, Hermes developed into a central figure of such transitional zones, whose effectiveness manifested itself in everyday religious life, in narrative myths and in visual culture. His significance is not explained by a single field of activity, but by his ability to symbolically bundle movement, exchange and mediation – from travel and trade to the guidance of souls. This makes it a key to understanding the cultural logics that shaped the Greek polis.

Mythological roles and cultic anchoring

In the Homeric hymns, Hermes appears as an early autonomously acting deity whose characteristics are already programmatically developed in the myth. The famous theft of Apollo’s cattle is to be read less as a moral transgression than as a narrative demonstration of intelligence, agility, knowledge of rules and rhetorical skill. These characteristics point to a deity who does not negate orders, but shifts and readjusts them according to the situation. In addition to his function as a messenger of the gods, Hermes clearly emerges in Greek religion as a psychopompos who guides souls on their way to Hades after death. This accompanying function connects the sphere of the living with the underworld and makes Hermes a mediator at one of the most radical boundaries of human existence.
This role found a concrete counterpart in cult practice: herms – cuboid pillars with the head of the god and often a phallic relief – were erected at crossroads, property boundaries, doorsteps and city gates, offering protection, orientation and legal markings at the same time. Such objects combined religious worship with social order, marked borders and paths, protected travelers and traders and made crossings visible and controllable. The cult of Hermes was particularly widespread in Arcadia and Attica in the Archaic and Classical periods; Mount Kyllene in Arcadia was considered the time-honored birthplace, from where its worship spread to other regions. The importance of the herms for the functioning of the polis is dramatically demonstrated by the famous desecration of the herms in Athens in 415 BC, when numerous public herms were mutilated in one night and a political-religious scandal arose that shook confidence in the order, omens and security of the city. The violent reaction of the Athenians – including trials, exile and political purges – illustrates how closely religious symbols, public space and polis-communal identity were linked.

Pictorial representation and artistic concepts

A comparatively stable iconographic repertoire developed in the visual arts of antiquity. Hermes was often depicted as a youthful, athletic body, equipped with winged sandals, a traveling hat (petasos) and the herald’s staff (kerykeion) as a sign of mediation. These attributes refer to speed, communication, trade and protection, but at the same time to a controlled, idealized physicality. Classical sculptures in particular, such as the “Hermes with the Dionysus Boy” from Olympia, which has been attributed to Praxiteles since antiquity, show Hermes as a resting figure with latent potential for movement, emphasizing the balance between dynamism and order. Attic vase painting from the 6th and 5th centuries BC also takes up these pictorial formulas, for example in scenes of soul guidance, errands between gods and humans or the accompaniment of other deities. In funerary iconography, Hermes Psychopompos appears as a discreet but present figure who frames the moment of farewell and structures the transition to the sphere beyond; his travel attributes no longer merely mark profane movement, but emphasize his ability to move safely between different worlds.

Transformations and cultural repercussions

In Roman antiquity, Hermes merged with Mercury, whereby the focus of his responsibilities shifted more towards trade, transportation, economic exchange and the urban economy, without completely displacing older functions such as the role of messenger and psychopompos. This adaptation illustrates how mythological figures remained adaptable to new social, political and economic contexts. In the European Renaissance, the ancient deity – now mostly under the name of Mercury – was received as an allegory of eloquence, learned mediation, inspiration and rapid intelligence. Humanist pictorial programmes drew on him to symbolize intellectual agility, diplomatic skill and rhetorical competence, for example in emblem books, ceiling paintings or courtly allegories. The figure thus became part of a long-term traditional context in which ancient systems of meaning were repeatedly reinterpreted, recoded and functionalized.
Even today, Hermes – often conveyed through the figure of Mercury – stands for mobility, communication, trade and the productive handling of borders, which is why his symbolism remains understandable even in modern cultural contexts. In art and cultural history, the figure proves to be a connecting element between religious practice, visual design and social order. Its enduring presence shows that ancient myths are less to be understood as rigid traditions than as flexible interpretations that can be adapted to changing cultural issues and constantly updated.