We warmly welcome these three new employees to the project "Modernisation Blockades in Industry and Science in the GDR" at the Department of Economics.

Mareike zum Felde and Charlotta Cordes started on May 1, 2019 as research assistants and doctoral students as part of subproject 7: "Political Strategies & Actors of Economic Transformation. Different path dependencies and long-term consequences for the GDR (East Germany), Poland and the Czech Republic". Ann Hipp has been working on subproject 1: "Modernisation blockades in the GDR and productivity disparities in comparison with the Federal Republic of Germany and neighbouring countries in Eastern Central Europe" since the 1st of June 2019. The Bremen project work is carried out by the Department of Economics (working group Prof. Dr. Jutta Günther) in close cooperation with the Research Centre Eastern Europe (Prof. Dr. Heiko Pleines) and in cooperation with the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS).

Jutta Günther heads the research network on "Modernisation Blockades in Industry and Science in the GDR", which is initially funded by the BMBF with 3 million euros for four years. In this network, scientists from the University of Bremen, TU Berlin, the University of Jena and the European University Viadrina are working on the question of the economic heritage of socialism and transformation.

We are pleased to have won Ann Hipp, Mareike zum Felde and Charlotta Cordes for the project and wish them a successful start.