Stock Photo - 15 June 2022, North Rhine-Westphalia, Münster: Martin Peschel (l), Ministerialrat, Head of the Legal Department, and Andreas Wigger, Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI), sit before the hearing in the courtroom of the Higher Administrative Court of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The OVG is hearing the dispute between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal Data Protection Commissioner. The Federal Ministry of the Interior is suing against an instruction that no personal data may be stored for anonymously submitted inquiries via the portal ""fragdenstaat.de"". The ministry had made answers to the questions dependent on the questioners providing a personal e-mail address and a private postal address. The Cologne Administrative Court had ruled in favor of the Federal Republic in the lower instance in the dispute over information under the Freedom of Information Act (Ref.: 16 A 857/21 and 16 A 858/21)., Higher Administrative Court NRW Photo: Guido Kirchner/dpa. - Münster/North Rhine-Westphalia/Germany