How did the fall of the Berlin Wall affect science in Germany?

DW:

New opportunities for scientists certainly opened up in the East and the West for scientists after the fall of the wall. There are the success stories of East German scientists who benefitted from an exchange of ideas but that wasn't always the case for most scientists from East Germany, was it?

Ernst Rietschel:

That's quite true and it's due to the fact that West and East did not try to find a new system. It was the West's system that was used and the East's people had to adjust to that. The criteria to work in that system of course were sometimes very different. In addition, their possible involvement in party politics etcetera made it very difficult for many of them. In fact, 22 thousand people lost their job in science at that time.

Right, that was quite a big number. Now having said that, what for you was the most significant change in science here in Germany after reunification?

I would say that it resulted from the fact that the new institutions which were created in the former DDR (East Germany) were created after a very strict evaluation procedure. And that evaluation procedure then was applied to Western institutions. That raised the level of quality of all the institutions and made Germany among the best players in the world. I think the fall of the wall created a new culture of working together for the benefit of science in general.

Really putting Germany at the top of the map. Well, what has been the role of your institute, the Leibniz Association?

The Leibniz is a child of the reunification because 31 institutes which were formerly in the DDR Academy were converted to Leibniz Institutions. Leibniz didn't exist before the fall of the wall and now it's the biggest, institute-wise institution with 89 institutes.

Now you are also on the board of trustees of the Falling Wall Conference which meets every year on November 9 to honor scientists who tear down so-called walls in people's minds. Can you tell us some more about this organization?

That's exactly the idea. Every scientist is born to the danger that he build up walls in his mind. Dogmas, authorities, and we asked our speakers to define what was the wall in your discipline you tried to break down. How did you do that? And that is a very fascinating story and a very personal story worldwide. We see that walls exist everywhere and at the end of the conference we know better how to tear down these walls.

And your personal story, where were you on that fateful night in November 9th, 1989?

I was in front of the television, and our institute celebrated because we had many people and colleagues in the East German side, and we were just happy. It was just an overwhelming event.

It certainly was. We thank you very much for your time.

(Interview: Meggin Leigh)