It's precisely because of this extensive paper-based bureaucracy such things happen, not despite of it.

German bureaucracy is a complete and utter mess. By and large, it's a self-perpetuating end in itself that doesn't serve any purpose other than keeping itself (and the people and organisations involved in it) alive.

Which is more, due to the Germany aversion towards digitization and digital processes (with a misconceived notion of privacy commonly known as "data protection" in Germany often used as an excuse) the data recorded by those bureaucratic processes basically is stored in a gargantuan pile of paper nobody is able to make sense of.