On Monday, 8 September 2025, 7 p.m., the event series "Wissenschaft hautnah" will start in the winter semester 2025 at the Chemnitz Adult Education Centre. The series presents current topics from science and research and invites you to familiarise yourself with research questions from various disciplines.
To kick things off, historian Dr Martin Schmitt will delve into the IT history of the GDR. Under the title "Digitalisation in East Germany: Computer use in the GDR and its aftermath", he will trace the development of PC use in the GDR.
Participation in the event is free of charge. Information on the event and registration can be found under the event link or by calling 0371 488-4343.
The use of computers also rapidly gained in importance in the GDR from the end of the 1950s. Computer centres in particular took over digital data processing. Chemnitz, then still Karl-Marx-Stadt, was an early stronghold of GDR computer production as the centre of the office machine industry.
Dr Martin Schmitt, an expert in digital history at the University of Paderborn, presents this development along historical lines: What tasks did the mainframes fulfil? What consequences or unintended side effects did their use have? What perspective does a history of technology in the GDR open up? Anyone interested is invited to come and talk to him.
Other topics in the "Science up close" series until January 2026 include autonomous driving, media use by children and young people from a medical perspective and the use of artificial intelligence in education.
Information on the other events in the series can be found at Volkshochschule Chemnitz - Wissenschaft hautnah or by calling 0371 488-4343.
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