German Academy of Sciences

in Berlin (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin), the leading scientific institution of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), founded in 1946. The academy’s predecessor was the Prussian Academy of Sciences, founded in 1700, which was in reality a scientific society that encouraged the development of science but did not have its own scientific institutions. As of 1971 the academy consisted of 22 central institutes, 14 institutes, and a number of other research institutions. The activities of the academy are governed by statutes drawn up May 20, 1969. It comes under the jurisdiction of the Council of Ministers of the GDR. The directing bodies of the academy are its General Assembly and Presidium.

There are several institutes in each main area of specialization. In the social and socioeconomic sciences, there are central institutes of philosophy, economic sciences, history, linguistics, literary history, ancient history, and archaeology, as well as institutes for the history of economics and the theory and history of science. In mathematics and physics there are central institutes of cybernetics and information processes, optics and spectroscopy, electronic physics, mathematics, and mechanics. The area of nuclear physics and isotopic engineering has central institutes for isotopes and radioactivity and for nuclear research and an institute for high-energy physics. In the study of materials there are central institutes of solid-state physics and materials research, an institute for the physics of materials processing, and a research institute on ore-dressing. In space physics there are central institutes for solar-terrestrial physics, astrophysics, and earth physics, as well as an institute of marine physics. The biological sciences have central institutes of biology and medicine, microbiology and experimental therapy, genetics and crop research, and nutrition, as well as institutes of plant biochemistry and comparative pathology and research centers for zoology and limnology. In chemistry there are central institutes of physical chemistry, organic chemistry, and high polymers as well as institutes for chemical engineering, fibrous materials research, the technology of fibers, the technology of silicates, and inorganic chemistry.

Membership in the academy as of 1971 included 150 scientists of the GDR, of whom 60 were academicians and 90 were corresponding members. Of the 50 foreign scientists who have been elected corresponding members, 20 are Soviet scientists. Seven prominent scientists of the GDR have been elected foreign members of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The German Academy of Sciences publishes a yearbook and a bulletin, as well as a series of scientific magazines. The academy has extensive international connections.