The Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces, runs one of the country's most prominent public sector websites in one of the highest-risk digital environments in Europe, being a potential target for disinformation, cyberattacks, and scrutiny. 
bundeswehr.de began as more than 70 separate sites, each built on its own technology, optimized locally and maintained in isolation. The relaunch consolidated those sites into one platform of around 10,000 pages, where service members and their families, journalists, policymakers, and the general public go for accurate, up-to-date information. 
Bringing all of that onto one platform, built and run with IBM iX on CoreMedia, changed how the Bundeswehr publishes, responds, and protects its content: one editorial standard across 10,000 pages, one security perimeter instead of 70, and the ability to update the entire site the moment accuracy matters.

The move from many sites to one platform delivered results that matter to a public communicator: 

• Consistent communication at scale. Around 10,000 pages, across every channel, now speak with one voice from a single system, instead of 70+ disconnected sites. 

• Innovation without downtime. In 2024 the team redesigned the entire front end overnight, with no downtime and no disruption to editors. When Germany's Zeitenwende reshaped defense priorities in 2022, the site adapted fast, with no relaunch. 

• A news-first platform built for fast-moving information. A news-first site surfaces the latest developments quickly, so the public gets current, reliable information when it counts. 

• No expensive relaunch cycle. A decade on one platform, improved continuously and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), instead of costly rebuilds every few years. 

The 2024 rebrush replaced the front end of a 10,000-page site in a single deployment. CoreMedia's modular content architecture made it possible: design and content are decoupled, so the visual layer can be rebuilt without editors touching a single page. Here is what changed: 

• News first. Current, time-stamped content moved to the top of every page. Colored timestamps mark new items. A quick-access bar and breadcrumb navigation help users get relevant information fast. 

• Less visual noise. Deliberate whitespace and a more symmetric layout replaced dense, image-heavy pages. Individual topics get more space and attention. 

• A homepage built for entry points. The structure was reorganized so the most important themes are visible from the first interaction, not buried in navigation. 

• Journalistic editorial standards. Background reporting on defense, training, and Zeitenwende developments sits alongside breaking news, positioning bundeswehr.de as a trusted source. 

• Consistent across devices. The same clarity and hierarchy on mobile as on desktop, with no separate mobile build required. 

The Bundeswehr has built and run bundeswehr.de with IBM iX, a digital agency and part of IBM Consulting, together with BWI GmbH, the IT services provider for the German armed forces. IBM iX started in 2017 and launched in 2019, and the teams have treated the site as a product in constant development ever since. Engineers work in Scrum, editors in Kanban, both releasing in three-week sprints, with real users testing new features before they go live. Improvements ship as needs change, so the site keeps pace without waiting for a big relaunch. 

The Bundeswehr runs CoreMedia on-premise, inside a tightly controlled architecture managed by BWI GmbH. For a public sector client where sovereign data is non-negotiable, the ability to self-host a fully maintained, actively developed enterprise CMS was one of the decisive reasons for choosing CoreMedia and remains so a decade later. 

Beyond sovereign hosting, three platform capabilities underpin everything the Bundeswehr has been able to do: 

• Modular content architecture. Content is stored as structured, reusable components, separate from design, so the front end can be redesigned overnight without touching or re-editing the content itself.
• One place to create and publish. 150 editors work in a single, browser-based interface, previewing across web and mobile and publishing through review and approval, so updates go out fast and stay consistent.
• Security and accessibility for the public sector. The platform is built to meet accessibility standards (WCAG-based) and gives the Bundeswehr the governance a government body needs, including role-based permissions, audit trails, and a GDPR framework. 

Presenting at CoreMedia Connect & Partner Engage 2026, IBM iX's Tim Habermann and Marie Oelgemöller drew three lessons from ten years on the platform: 

• Build for change, not for launch. Continuous evolution beats a relaunch every few years.
• Resilience needs stability and adaptability at the same time. A public platform has to stay dependable while it keeps changing.
• One platform, coherence at scale. A single system means consistent communication and efficiency, whatever comes next.