Sir

Bernd Legler and Guy Moore1 comment in Correspondence on the evaluation of East German institutes by the Wissenschaftsrat and the intellectual and moral qualities of the scientists examined.

First, we are not aware of interviews held in English during evaluation of institutions in the former East German Academy of Sciences (a statement2 attributed to Jens Reich). Further, we found the evaluation here at the Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research at Gatersleben to be a fair process.

Second, though East German academics in general spoke English less fluently than western colleagues, most researchers in Academy of Sciences institutes were able to give lectures in English; only a few would have done better in Russian. Scientific matters were discussed in English for preference, even with Russian colleagues. At East German secondary schools, English was usually the second (compulsory) foreign language, and the same was true for faculties of natural sciences at universities.

Third, Legler and Moore describe the (few) East German heads of institutions and departments who gained such positions after the fall of the Wall as opportunists “biting the hand that had once fed them”. The truth is that most of these scientists occupied third-rank positions during the final period of East Germany's existence because they stood by their principles. Although well qualified, they had no chance of promotion in a system that rewarded obedience rather than scientific merit.

The scientists themselves had different selection criteria from those of the political ruling caste. At Gatersleben, for instance, a scientific council was elected by the entire scientific staff as early as 1989. This group pushed through the replacement of the former department heads and recruited a new board of directors that was confirmed by the Wissenschaftsrat in the course of its post-unification evaluation of the institute.

Maybe there have been individual cases of opportunism — but even so, it is certainly not an East German invention.