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I started at Humboldt-Universitaet in
1992 as a professor of information systems. While the past of the
University was legendary, it had gone through a major crisis since the
late 1930s when the Nazi government expelled a large number of
excellent researchers. The Communist government, under which the
university operated between 1945 and 1989, had not succeeded in
re-establishing Humboldt as a place of excellence in research and
teaching. Even though the East German government had realized the
importance of information technology and Computer Science to the
economy, it was not possible to have a normal exchange of information.
Knowledge and technology from the western countries were received very
late, when received. Representatives from East German universities
required special clearance from the government to participate in
foreign conferences and this type of knowledge was not high on the
priority list, thus making it rather hard to participate in foreign
conferences.
Considering this background, it is
truly remarkable that the Institute of Information Systems had been
able to work past its limited heritage and develop information
technology, absorb intense and important significance and has able to
pass it on to the students studying at its institute. This turn was
made possible due to the former director and professor Hans Gernert who
understood the importance of collaborating with the west European and
American countries. The university then became more open to external
contact and made a name for itself within university circles.
After reaching Berlin, it was easy to
fit in and there was a comfortable bond between the staff. Without
exaggerating, one can only state in the review: The reconstruction of
the institute may serve as an example for successful east and west
integration. Our main points of work complemented each other in a
complementary way. While Hans Gernert developed a working group within
the range of the business process modeling, I advanced work within the
range of the data base systems and service-based architectures. In the
latter topic, important suggestions arose as a result of membership in
the Special Research Range 373 ("quantification and simulation of
economic processes") founded in 1993. In 1996 the Graduate School of
Distributed Information Systems was created with funding by the German
Science Foundation (DFG). " Under leadership of the institute,
colleagues from all three universities in Berlin and the Brandenburg
technical University of Cottbus participated. 1999 saw the
establishment of the "Electronic Business Forum" as transfer mechanism
for the intensification of the dialogue between theory and practice. In
2003 our efforts led to the establishment of the Berlin Research Center
- Internet economics "InterVal" (Internet and value chains). Till 2007,
InterVal was supported by the German Ministry for Education and
Research with an expenditure of approximately 4 million euro. We also
cooperate with the other two universities in Berlin, as well as the
Fraunhofer-Institut for Software and System Engineering (ISST).
The success of the past years would not have been possible without the
support of partners abroad, in universities, industry and public
administration. In particular, we have to acknowledge and thank: the
German Ministry for Education and Research, the Germain Ministry for
Economy an Technology, the German Research Council, the Federal Office
for Environment Protection as well as the Business forums' organized
electronics industrial partners. SAP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Daimler,
GERRY WEBER, Siemens, BertelsmannSpringer, DeTeWe, PSI and Berlin
public transport are only a handful of the partners with whom we worked
with and hence have built a spirit of mutual confidence together over
the years.
Finally I would like to appreciate
the work of our colleague Hans Gernert, who passed away in August of
2003 under tragic circumstances. Without the relentless effort of
Professor Gernert particularly in the important turning years, the
reconstruction of the Institute would have not been possible to this
extent. The strength of solidarity between Hans Gernert and the
Institute was seen when he regularly came to the department well after
his retirement in the year 1999. In 2002 he received the award for the
best professor from the faculty. In honor of his work we have initiated
a prize, which is to be assigned annually for the best dissertation in
the area of information systems. Hans Gernert will be missed.
Berlin, December 2007
Prof. Oliver Gunther, Ph.D.
Director of the Institute of Information Systems
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