Its objective is to examine the economic and scientific developments of the GDR and to understand their socio-economic impact on East Germany today. The results will be compared to developments of other former state socialist countries, such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, but also to developments in the old federal states.

In the research project, interdisciplinary research concepts and methods are applied in seven sub-projects. The developments will be analysed economically, but also sociologically, historically and politically on both, macro and micro level; methodologically, quantitative as well as qualitative methods of data collection and assessment will be used. For the joint project, the consortium is formed by researchers of the University of Bremen, Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Technical University Berlin, and European University Viadrina in Frankfurt Oder.

The joint project is financed by the BMBF initially for four years. Much more information is now available online: www.uni-bremen.de/mod-block-ddr