How to convert string to date with the accuracy of seconds?

I would like to convert a string into a date with the accuracy of seconds, for example: "12.12.2020 14:02". It seems that this is not possible? The DATEVALUE(datetext) culls the hours/mins/seconds information, and TIMEVALUE(datetext) culls the date information, leaving only hours, minutes and seconds. Is it possible to somehow combine date and time values, to use DATEVALUE and TIMEVALUE together, adding them up, converting to a date, with the accuracy of seconds? A DATETIMEVALUE(datetext) function would come handy in this case, unfortunately it seems to not exist.