Applied research and industrial development in East Germany: International comparison by performance indicators

Abstract

The ‘spotlight’ trained in this inquiry on East German R&D consists of four differently ‘coloured’ and differently directed ‘light beams’: • invention activities originating from East German domiciles or company registered offices are analysed insofar as they were duplicated by a patent application abroad in West Europe, indicative of the portion of East German technology important for export; • likewise. East German patents awarded at the US Patent Office were examined in order to identify a non-obvious overseas market for the traditional business dealings of East German combines, thereby obtaining a strong selection of the economically most important East German technology; • East German science dependence is identified by a new quantitative method. The indicator deduced therefrom for science involvement points to the relative proximity of industrial technology to scientific research; • R&D activity in the field of telecommunications was investigated as part of a case study of selected technical work areas in East Germany. The stitutional and regional structures of East Germany in telecommunications are discussed both in regard to time trends and also at the micro-level. The conclusions yielded by this selective approach for the current transitional situation in East German Federal States (Länder) are deduced as carefully as possible; they cannot, in all conscience, be substantiated, as this would fall outside the terms of reference of this hastily conducted inquiry.