United Germany: The new scientific superpower?

As a consequence of the dramatic upheaval in East-Europe the German reunification has become one of the central problems of nowadays. Several relevant publications have more or less cautiously forecasted the rise of a new superpower in the midst of Europe. The present study attempts to shed light on some quantitative aspects of the research performance in both parts of Germany. Selected citation based indicators are used to determine the initial position and future of the United Germany in scientific research. Though the reunification involves an essential increase of the “scientific potential”, the actual indicator values exhort to rather cautious expectations concerning the immediate intensification of research performance.