According to DCD, the Rostock municipality in northern Germany has broken ground on a €6 million ($6.9M) municipal data center featuring 300kW capacity across 90 square meters (969 sq ft) of white space. The facility, being developed by PBIT systems and DC Datacenter Group, will include solar power and waste heat reuse while being managed by Deutsche Telekom despite city ownership. Construction is scheduled for shell completion in Q1 2026 with full operation by September 2026, with migration of city IT systems beginning next year. Simultaneously, the municipality of Dummerstorf just south of Rostock is negotiating with an unnamed German investor, potentially Freo Group, for a massive 1.2GW data center campus spanning 30 hectares under the codename “Beowulf.” Elsewhere in Germany, Glasfaser Ruhr is planning another modular data center in Bochum capable of hosting 235 racks at up to 10kW density each.
From Quiet Region to Digital Hub?
Here’s the thing about Rostock – it’s not exactly what you’d call a data center hotspot. Currently, only euNetworks operates in the area according to DataCenterMap. But that might be changing dramatically. A 1.2GW campus? That’s absolutely massive. For context, that’s approaching the scale of some of the largest data center developments in Europe.
Now, the municipal project makes perfect sense – cities everywhere are modernizing their IT infrastructure. But the potential gigawatt-scale campus in Dummerstorf is a completely different animal. We’re talking about transforming a relatively quiet region into a potential digital infrastructure powerhouse. The question is whether the local infrastructure, particularly power and connectivity, can support that kind of scale.
The Mysterious Investor
The reported involvement of Freo Group raises some interesting questions. This isn’t a company known for data center development – they’re primarily real estate investors with experience in office, retail, and hotel projects. So either they’re making a major strategic pivot, or they’re partnering with operators who actually know how to run data centers.
Local press including Tagesschau and NDR have been tracking this story, but officials haven’t confirmed the investor’s identity. The codename “Beowulf” adds to the intrigue – these massive projects often operate under code names during early planning stages to avoid speculation driving up land prices.
The Practical Challenges
Let’s be real – building a 1.2GW campus isn’t like developing an office building. The power requirements alone are staggering. Northern Germany isn’t exactly known for having abundant, cheap electricity. And then there’s the connectivity question – will major cloud providers and network operators be willing to build out the necessary fiber infrastructure to what’s currently a secondary market?
The municipal project seems much more straightforward. As Datacenter Insider reports, it’s a sensible 300kW facility with clear use cases for city services. But the Dummerstorf proposal? That feels like someone’s swinging for the fences.
Part of a Bigger Pattern
What’s interesting is that this isn’t happening in isolation. The Glasfaser Ruhr project in Bochum shows that municipal utilities and local providers are increasingly getting into the data center game. As WAZ reports, they’re planning another modular facility, which suggests they’re seeing growing demand in their region.
Basically, we’re seeing two parallel trends in Germany: municipalities building their own digital infrastructure for sovereignty and efficiency, while investors eye secondary markets for massive development opportunities. The question is whether northern Germany has the fundamentals to support both approaches simultaneously. The next year or two will tell us whether these ambitious plans become reality or remain on the drawing board.
