90) *

The West-German GDR-investigation did not anticipate the end of the GDR and the East-German social scientists had been ideologically discredited in 1989. Therefore, the transitional phase and the accession of the GDR according to article 23 of the Basic Law (old version) ) were hardly supported socio-scientifically. Instead, the Scientific Council recommended closing down all socio-scientific and economic institutions of the GDR. In their place the IWH (Halle Institute for Economic Research) in addition to the CSPC (The Commission for the Investigation of Social and Political Change in the Newly-formed German Provinces) were founded in 1991.

The CSPC (1991-1996) *

The Commission for the Investigation of Social and Political Change in the New German Federal States was a forum for transformation research which has been financed by the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT) and the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMA). The CSPC was registered in the register of associations in Halle an der Saale on 30thJuly 1991. However, its actual work did not start until December 1991. Before its untimely end on the 30th of June 1996 six report volumes, about 60 theme-related companion volumes, as well as numerous expertise and journal articles were published.

The CSPC was supposed to encourage application-oriented socio-scientific research projects, accompany the process of transformation and to support young scientific professionals as well as the redesign of the East-German social sciences. The practical orientation of the CSPC was seen especially in the development of action recommendations and expertise on an empirical and socio-theoretical basis for different federal and state ministries.

Nevertheless, the CSPC was shut down abruptly when its financing expired half a year ahead of schedule after fiscal and internal political debates (in June instead of December 1996). It seems that the last federal government under Chancellor Helmut Kohl (1994-1998) did not want their reconstruction performance to be exposed to socio-critical analysis. The scientific sector’s reaction to the work of the CSPC was also rather restrained. The effect of saturation in transformation research occurred.

The Center for Social Research Halle (1995 ff.) *

The Center for Social Research Halle was founded by Burkhart Lutz in Halle (Saale) at the Martin Luther University in 1995 as a reaction to the abolition of the CSPC. It continued with the transformational research of the CSPC by initially focusing on labor market research in small and medium-sized enterprises (KMU).

Today a team of around 20 social scientists works on varying projects that combine basic research with practical utilization. Analyses of the CSRH have an influence on scientific discussions and allow a transfer of knowledge for companies and politics.

The CSRH is subdivided into three research fields: labor market (PD Dr. Holle Grünert), labor and social law (Prof. Dr. Wolfhard Kohte), as well as democracy and participation (Prof. Dr. Everhard Holtmann). The labor market division researches in particular the results of demographic change on the labor market and the system of vocational training. The field of labor and social law analyses effects of labor and social law on the labor market, issues related to occupational health and safety at the workplace as well as to the reconciliation of family and working life. The democracy and participation division focuses on problems of political participation and researches its contextual conditions, whereby regional and interregional receive the most attention.

The Collaborative Research Center 580 (2001 – 2012) *

The Collaborative Research Center 580’s ‘Social Developments in Post-socialistic Societies: Discontinuity, Tradition, Structural Formation’ was founded on the 1st of July 2001 at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and was completed on the 30th of June 2012 (Best/Holtmann 2012). The CRC 580 showed a high continuity in context and personnel with the CSPC and the CSRH.

The CRC 580 focuses on the long term consequences of societal change in East Germany and other former socialist countries. In the three fields of research – elites, labor market and social sector – with 17 sub-projects sociologists, political scientists, psychologists, lawyers, historians as well as economists and health scientists researched the challenges in economics, politics and social services that were created by the system change.

Instead of a ‘catch-up modernization process’ the CRC 580 describes this change as the development of independent solutions for challenges in reunification processes and in reacting to worldwide changes. The work of the CRC 580 was not only meaningful from a theoretical standpoint, it also contributed practically to the solution of social and political problems.

The German Research Foundation’s Transfer-Project T03 (2013 – 2015) *

The German Research Foundation’s Transfer-Project T03 “Knowledge Transfer as Intercultural Translation: Development of Exemplary Practices of Transformation-preparing Activities in Korea” arose from the SFB 580 in January 2013. In close collaboration with the Institute of Korean Studies at the Free University of Berlin as well as theMinistry of Unification, previous findings of German transformation research and especially the report from the SFB 580 are due to be transferred to South Korea by the end of December 2015. Here, the project T03 is one of the first socio-scientific transfer projects funded by the DFG.