TRADITION AND PROGRESS OF A RESEARCH INST ITUTION

Aspects of the history of the research institute at Gatersleben have b een discussed on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its foundatio n. The basic concept of its first director, HANS STUBBE, could be main tained under very different external conditions. Joint basic research of diverse biological disciplines for crop plants and efforts to count eract the worldwide process of erosion of genetic variability of crops can still be defined as the fundamental tasks of the institute. Keepi ng and change of research principles are described mainly from the vie wpoint of the taxonomic and genebank groups of the institute.