Neurosdencein the formerGDR Volker Bigl and Wolf Singer Volker B1glis at the PaulFlechsig Institute for Brain Research,Karl-Marx Stadterstrasse50, D-7039Leipzig, FRG, and Wolf Singeris at the Max P/and Institute for Brain Research, Deutschordenstrasse 46, D-6000 Frankfurt/Main 71, FRO.

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restricted by bureaucratic regulations and administrational insufficiencies. At least in the life sciences, student and postgraduate exchanges with the Soviet Union were almost negligible and subject to politically motivated selection procedures. In addition, there was no special demand for research positions in the Soviet Union and the other allied eastern countries because living conditions and technical facilities at other institutes were, with only The conditions resulting from the division and a few exceptions, worse than in East Germany. In reunification of Germany have affected the neuro- the 1960s, when economy boomed in West sciences in both parts of the country; it therefore Germany, the rapidly expanding universities and seemed appropriate to have this review on neuro- research institutions in this part of the country science in former East Germany prepared by two attracted back a considerable number of scientists authors who have had personal experience of the who had gone west, and this strengthened the science systems in former East and West Germany, bonds between West Germany and the interrespectively. The unification process has sharpened national scientific community. In the East, by contrast, communication remained our perception of differences between the systems, and we felt that it might be of interest to pool our restricted. Travelling was difficult even between knowledge. We intend to retrace briefly the short neighbouring eastern countries because of currency history of our separation, define the major differ- problems. Participation in scientific meetings was ences that have evolved between our science possible only in the form of official delegations, and systems, and discuss some of the problems associ- return visits by Soviet colleagues were particularly ated with adapting to unification. The conditions in difficult to organize. Altogether, the East not only former East Germany will be dealt with in somewhat suffered more from the brain drain than the West greater detail because they are probably less familiar (which was one of the reasons for the construction of the Berlin Wall), but also profited less from to most of our readers. beneficial international relations and intellectual exchange. However, the most important causes of The effect of separation on neuroscience Separation began during the last phase of World the differences we experience today were due to War II, when the devastating bombing of cities intimately connected political and economic forces. increased and the eastern front approached German After the war, most scientific institutions in the territory. At that time many cultural treasures and West could be adapted to the new constitution scientific institutions were moved from the East to with only minor changes to their internal structure. rural areas in the western part of the country that For example, the institutes of the Kaiser-Wilhelm was to become the FRG. One of them was the Gesellschaft were revived under the umbrella of the important Institute for Brain Research of the Kaiser- newly founded Max Planck Society. Universities Wilhelm Gesellschaft. This research centre had came under the responsibility of the respective previously been located in Berlin-Buch in the eastern 'L~nder governments', and this led to beneficial part of Berlin, which was later included in the GDR. diversity of curricula and relative autonomy from The translocated departments of this institute federal politics. The newly founded federal organremained functional and later on, some of them izations for the funding of research, such as the became the seeds for the growth of the Max Planck Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the funding Institutes for Brain Research in Frankfurt (founded in agencies of the Ministry for Science and Technol1962) and for Neurological Research in Cologne ogy, adopted the personal granting and peer review (founded in 1982). system. This was also practised by the many During the two decades following the war, the industrially based foundations that began to support academic institutions in both parts of the country research once the economy had stabilized. were profoundly affected by the emigration of The East, by contrast, adopted the Soviet system qualified scientists to the West. Because of the and created the Academy of Sciences, which comrapidly developing bonds with academic institutions prised the institutes of the former Kaiser-Wilhelm in the USA, the majority of emigrating scientists Gesellschaft. Over the years, a number of new from West Germany went there to work. Most institutes in different fields were added to the scientists from the Soviet occupation zone who Academy. In 1990, the Academy of Sciences had opted for the West lacked these overseas connec- about 30000 employees and was about three times tions and settled in West Germany, thus partly the size of the Max Planck Society. This privileged compensating for the 'brain drain'. Scientific expansion of the Academy, which was considered to exchanges between East Germany and the Soviet be the main supporting body of socialistic science, Union developed only slowly and remained severely was paralleled by an underestimation of the role of Until 1945, when Germany was subdivided into four occupied territones, scientific traditions and science policy were the same throughout Germany. Then came 45years of increaslhg separation and diverging development. Now, the East and West are again formally united and their inhabitants are experiencing, with an intensity that was not anticipated, just how different their countries have become.

© 1991.ElsevieSci r encePublishersLtd.(UK) 0166-2236/91/$0200

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perspectives university research. Along with financial restrictions, this led to an increasing institutional segregation of teaching and research. Although several funding models were introduced, all were directed exclusively to institutions to ensure central administrational control, and they also lacked a peer review system. As a consequence, funds were allocated to the universities according to the 'Five-Year Plan', with their subsequent distribution to the departments often depending on administrational rather than scientific criteria. Another difference between former East and West Germany is that the neurosciences in East Germany have been exposed to the Pavlovian tradition that was so influential in the Soviet Union. The work of Pavlov and Anokhin was translated into German and has had a significant influence on the systems-oriented branches of neurophysiology. The role of IBRO has also been important, although at a more political level. This organization, which had been founded with the support of the Soviet Union, promoted neuroscience as an independent and important area of research, and was one of the few platforms for legal contacts with international neuroscience. As in other eastern countries, neuroscience was given a high priority by the party and the government. This is reflected by the foundation in 1972 of the 'Commission for multilateral cooperation between the academies of socialist countries in the field of neurophysiology and higher nervous function', called INTERMOZG. However, due to economic and bureaucratic restrictions this commission degenerated to a mere advisory board, the actions of which had no practical consequences. Despite the priority given to neuroscience, it is only recently that it has become represented in the Academy of Sciences by the Institute for Neurobiology and Brain Research, inaugurated in Magdeburg in 1990. This institute emerged from a special centrally directed research project that focused on synaptic plasticity, learning and memory, and that had previously been based at the Institute of Pharmacology in Magdeburg. Until then, the traditional Brain Research Institute at the University of Leipzig, founded by Paul Flechsig in 1879, was the only institute devoted exclusively to brain research. Altogether, the conditions for studying the neurosciences in the East were probably less adversive than those pervading a number of other disciplines. Consequently, some remarkable results have been achieved by several of the sometimes small and insufficiently equipped research groups, especially in fields less dependent on sophisticated techniques and expensive chemicals. An overview of the institutes and departments involved in brain research in the former GDR is given in Table I. This brief overview reveals a relative preponderance of research devoted to mechanisms of memory and learning on the one hand and to clinically relevant problems on the other. The former is a result of the priority that was set in centrally administered funding. The latter reflects the fact that most of the research units in neurosciences are linked to medical schools. Comparison with neuroTINS, VoI. 14, No. 7, 1991

science in the West shows further that the recent international trends towards cellular and molecular approaches are less pronounced in the East, where neuroscience has remained more systems oriented and much time is concentrated into searching for correlations between behaviour and neuronal substrate. In the West these aspects have recently received less attention, and it is hoped that the chance to complement the different research emphases will be recognized. Apart from the Pavlovian influences, the main reason for this divergence of research profiles was the shortage of convertible currency, which severely limited the access to modern equipment as well as to the market of antibodies, isotopes, enzymes, anatomical tracers and molecular probes. Restricted communication with countries in the West also contributed to this divergence from 'Western trends'. Probably because of the close vicinity of West Germany and the lack of linguistic barriers, these restrictions were particularly severe in East Germany. Only very few scientists were allowed to travel to conferences and laboratories in the West. They had to be nominated members of the so-called 'Reisekader'- the 'class of travellers'. The others had no chance to go to the West and in many institutes, especially in sensitive fields of applied research, scientists were not allowed to maintain contacts with western relatives, friends or colleagues. Scientific journals were available only in very small numbers because of currency restrictions, and recent journals or monographs were often unavailable. Hence, personal reprint orders were often the only way of obtaining primary information, although some institutions restricted even this means of communication.

Neuroscience today The political reunification of the former GDR and former FRG virtually overnight meant that the science systems in the two parts of Germany had to become compatible. In the treaty that regulated the unification process (the 'Beitrittsvertrag'), it was agreed to discontinue the Academy of Sciences as a supporting body of the research institutes. Attempts are now being made to reassociate the institutes of the academy with universities, industries or federal agencies, depending on whether they are devoted to basic or applied research. The universities have been put under the responsibility of the governments of the five newly formed L~nder. This drastic and sudden reorganization raises a number of severe, but as we all hope, transitory problems. First, a fixed budget for university institutions, comprising salaries and running costs, must now be confirmed by the governments of the corresponding L~nder. However, at present, their tax income is not sufficient to meet the demands of the universities, necessitating an interim support by the Federal Government. Second, because of the political concept of assured permanent employment, because of exclusive institutional funding and because of the need to provide in-house facilities for the construction and repair of equipment, all 279

TABLE I. Institutes and departments involved in brain research in the former GDR Institute and location

Supporting institution

Research areas

Institute for Neurobiology and Brain Research, Magdeburg

Former Academy of Sciencesof the GDR

Institute of Physiology, Magdeburg

Medical Academy of Magdeburg

Institute of Pharmacology, Magdeburg Institute of Biology, Magdeburg Institute of Pathological Biochemistry, Magdeburg Paul-Flechsig Institute for Brain Research, Leipzig

Medical Academy of Magdeburg Medical Academy of Magdeburg Medical Academy of Magdeburg University of Leipzig

Physiology, pharmacology and histochemistry of learning and memory Long-term potentiation, synaptic plasticity, neuronal networks Neuropeptides and behaviour Cerebrospinal fluid Regulation of blood pressure Neuronal plasticity and convulsive and nonconvulsive forms of increased neural excitability Excitatory amino acids and neurodegeneration

Carl Ludwig Institute of Physiology, Leipzig

University of Leipzig

Institute of Pathophysiology, Leipzig

University of Leipzig

Dept of Biosciences, Leipzig

University of Leipzig

Section of Informatics, Leipzig Institute of General Zoology and Animal Physiology,Jena Dept Neurochemistry, Clinic of Psychiatry and Neurology, Jena Institute of Physiology, Jena

University of Leipzig Friedrich Schiller University, Jena Friedrich Schiller University, Jena

Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Dresden

Medical Academy, Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden

Physiology Institute, Berlin

Humboldt University Medical School, Berlin

Anatomical Institute, Berlin

Humboldt University Medical School, Berlin

Institute of Pathology and Clinical Biochemistry, Berlin Institute of Pharmacology, Berlin Dept Neurobiology, Psychiatry Hospital, Berlin Institute of Drug Research, Berlin Institute Experimental Endocrinology, Berlin Dept of Psychophysiology, Berlin

Humboldt University Medical School, Berlin Humboldt University Medical School, Berlin Humboldt University Medical School, Berlin Former Academy of Sciencesof the GDR Humboldt University Medical School, Berlin Former Central Institute of Occupational Medicine, Berlin Ilmenau Institute of Technology

Dept of Neurocomputing and CognitiveSystems, Ilmenau

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Friedrich Schiller University, Jena

Glycolipids in psychoses Neuroanatomy, neurophysiology and neurochemistry of central cholinergic systems Neurobiology of Alzheimer's disease Development of the visual system Comparative neuroanatomy of mammals Vestibular system Physiology of the retina Psycho- and electrophysiological analysisof visual motion processing Physiology of glial cells Hypoxia Development of motor reactions Vestibular system Blood-brain barrier Neuroendocrinology Peptides and behaviour Neuronal modelling and artificial neural networks Neuroactive substances in invertebrates Neurochemical markers and predictors in psychiatric disorders Blood-brain barrier Slow EEGevents Source analysisof cortical DC potentials Physiology of glial cells Psychophysiology Mechanisms of action of central antihypoxic substances Kindling and antiepileptics EEGanalysisin humans Neuronal plasticity Visual system Locomotor behaviour Development of the cerebral cortex Synaptic plasticity (long-term potentiation, learning and memory) Long-term perinatal hypoxia and the dopaminergic system Pharmacology of co-transmission in CNS Neurotransplantation Metabolism of 5-HT in endogenous psychoses Molecular pharmacology of neuropeptides Peptides in drug addiction and withdrawal Neurotransmitters in the ontogenetic differentiation of the brain Event-related brain potentials in humans Structured artificial neuronal networks Active vision systems Models of cortical information processing

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perspectives research institutions in the new L~nder (the former Looking to the future GDR) have a disproportionately large number of Despite these advances, some more time is employees, most of whom are on permanent needed before full advantage can be taken of these contracts. In university institutes of the old L~nder opportunities. Old-fashioned basic equipment must (the former FRG), a substantial fraction of the be replaced and it will take several years before the budget devoted to research comes from extramural financial basis of the new L~nder will have recovered grants and about one third to one half of the sufficiently to support the required investments. research positions are temporary. Because salaries have not yet been adapted to There are two reasons for choosing to adapt the western levels and because the budgets of the eastern structures to fit the western model and not institutes are still insecure, travelling is now limited vice versa. First, if salaries in the new L~nder were by financial constraints. In principle these problems allowed to reach the same level as in the old, the could be overcome by grants. However, it turns out budgets would simply become too high. Second, in that the available funds are only partially used. One order to create positions for young scientists and to reason for this is that colleagues in the new L&nder make use of the grant and peer review system, the never had a chance to apply and to receive permanent staff must be reduced. As a conse- extramural support. Hence, they lack experience of quence, and this is the major cause of recent dissat- the diversity of European granting systems. Another isfaction and tension, research institutes will have reason is that most granting agencies require that to reduce the fraction of tenure positions by about the position of the applicant and the basic instione third, to 50%. This is particularly discourag- tutional support are guaranteed for the time of the ing because, in the past, academic positions (once granting period. In anticipation of the reduction of obtained) were absolutely secure. Apart from this positions and the restructuring of the institutions, employment problem, which is not restricted to both requirements are difficult to meet at present. In spite of these numerous problems, both at the scientific institutions, the other consequences of reunification are generally considered as advantageous institutional and personal level, the contours of the for the further development of the neuro- future are quite clear. If the economy of Germany sciences. In addition to the already existing granting manages to preserve its stability, then neuroscience bodies, the budgets of which have been increased to will be strengthened by additional investments accommodate the growing number of applications, amounting to about one third of the current numerous special programmes have been installed support. Because of the previous employment policy that provide selective support for scientists in the and restricted mobility, the average age of the new L~.nder. The Federal Ministry of Science and scientific staff in the institutes of the new L~nder is Technology has launched several twinning pro- relatively high. Thus, there is a strong need to recruit grammes, one of which is in neuroscience, which young scientists and in a few years many leading support collaboration between laboratories in the positions will become available. Finally, it is to be old and the new L&nder. The Max Planck Society expected that the merging of different scientific intends to fund up to 20 research units traditions will create a favourable climate for new ('Arbeitsgruppen') in the new L~nder, which will developments. Thus, although at present the ambience in many have a lifetime of five years and comprise about four scientists and three technicians. Four of these units research institutions in the new L~nder is characterare about to be installed, although none of them is ized by uncertainty, hesitation and sometimes even in neuroscience. In addition, there are plans to resignation, the outlook is encouraging. However, it found new Max Planck Institutes in the new L~nder. will take years of mutual effort before the profound Hence, neuroscientists in the new L~.nder now have, differences in mentality and organizational strucin principle, access to the same resources as their tures, caused by only 45 years of divergent developcolleagues in the old L~nder. ment, are overcome.

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