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The East Germans have made significant contributions to research in internal medicine. The work in gerontology has received international recognition; specific studies have concerned the neuroanatomy of the brain and the relation of age to the structure of cerebral blood vessels. The Central Institute for Industrial Medicine in East Berlin, using athletes and soldiers as test subjects, is conducting good research on work hygiene, work physiology, and occupational diseases.
Significant advances are being made in the development of biomedical instrumentation, especially by the VEB Scientific Technical Center in Dresden. The East Germans have suffered from a shortage of good quality research equipment, and much that is in use has been imported. Production has begun on equipment for cardiovascular and oncological diagnosis, machines for kidney dialysis, and pacemakers for heart therapy.
The veterinary research capability compared favorably with that of other European Communist countries but ranks below that of West Germany. Creditable research has been accomplished which has contributed materially to the more effective control of animal disease epizootics and increased animal production. The loss of scientific veterinary personnel to the West has hampered veterinary research, but the exchange of information and personnel with the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries has offset the loss to some extent. An active and well-organized veterinary service has reduced significantly the incidence of economically important diseases. Veterinary research has stressed applied aspects, but an increasing emphasis is being placed on basic and fundamental research. Research has been directed toward the development of new and improved vaccines and diagnostic techniques for the control of foot-and-mouth disease, rabies, glanders, swine fever, Newcastle disease, viral pneumonia, tuberculosis, and equine infectious anemia. Good research has been done in parasitology and pathology.
The Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, and the Foodstuffs Industry is responsible for the planning and coordination of the research effort with guidance provided by AW. The most important facilities conducting veterinary research are the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, on the island of Riems; the Veterinary Vaccine Research Institute, Dessau; the Institute of Bacterial Epizootic Research of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, East Berlin; the Institute for Bacterial Studies of Infectious Diseases of Domestic Animals at the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena; and the Institute of Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Leipzig. Humboldt University in East Berlin and Karl Marx University in Leipzig also have been active in veterinary research.
6. Other sciences (S)
a. Chemistry and metallurgy
East Germany ranks high among the European Communist countries in both basic and applied chemical research. All of the important fields of chemistry are well covered, and competent scientists conduct good-quality research in each field. The government is encouraging scientists to emphasize applied research at some sacrifice to basic studies.
Organic chemical research is strong and many of the outstanding chemists in the country are active in this subfield. Extensive research is being done in the universities on organic synthesis, physical organic chemistry, and organometallic compounds. The AW's Institute of Organic Chemistry, East Berlin, is doing important research in synthesis: Helmut Dorn and his associates at the institute are working on the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds related to pyrazolidine and cxazolidine and on the synthesis of potential cytostatic agents. The institute also is engaged in research on organophosphorus compounds. A variety of synthetic organic problems is being studied at the Martin Luther University in Halle, which has a very active department of organic chemistry. The most outstanding work is done by Prof. Kurt Issleib on phosphines and phosphine oxides and on the reactions of alkali phosphides with organic compounds. A group of researchers at Karl Marx University in Leipzig is doing strong work on heterocyclic nitrogen compounds (quinoxalines, quinazolines, and pyridines), aminoalkylations, cycloalkanones, and the addition of carbenes to bicyclic nonoterpenes. The most prominent of these researchers is Manfred Muehlstaedt, who is active in physical organic chemistry, including conformation studies, molecular orbital calculations, hydrogen isotope exchange reactions of nonbenzenoid hydrocarbons, and other studies on reactions. The Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, formerly outstanding in organic chemistry, has become much less important in this field because of the retirement of Professors Guenther Drefahl and Franz Hein, the former noted for his work on stilbenes, aminoalcohols, and nitrogen-containing steroids, and the latter, an expert on organochromium and other organometallic compounds. Some research on organic chromium compounds is being continued by others at this university. Physical organic chemistry research at Humboldt University has concerned the kinetics and
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R00020011022-9
