Under the directorship of Professor Wolfgang Eichwede, it has since then carved its own distinctive niche within the German academic community through an intensive study of recent developments in the culture and society of Central and East European countries.
Even before the radical political changes this was one of the tasks of the Research Centre: during the 1980s, it gave attention above all to the appearance of independent artistic and intellectual creativity.
The focus on dissident culture was intertwined with the aspiration to track informal tendencies and intellectual approaches which could give an insight into the societies of the region.
It contains banned or unofficial artistic, literary and academic writings from Poland, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the GDR (East Germany).
It was initially funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, but since 1986/7 it has received subsidies from the joint committee of the educational ministries of the German federal republics.
At the moment a database is being created for the unique collections within the Bremen archive, which on account of its use of five different languages resembles a large-scale pilot project.
The topics investigated included taxation, the role of trust in business relations, the political influence of companies and the development of corporate governance.
A further third-party funded research project investigates how the Polish, Czech and Slovakian trade unions cope with EU governance.
[5] The aim of the summer schools is to bring together a select group of doctoral students from throughout the world and assist their integration into the research community of East European studies.
Moreover, the subsection dealing with studies of the present offers regular e-mail services, which include updates on individual countries in the region in German[7] and English.
In cooperation with the Koszalin Institute of Comparative European Studies the Research Center offers regular bibliographic e-mail servises, which cover books and articles recently published in English and German on politics, foreign policy, economic and social affairs.