[25 years "Anesthesiology and Reanimation"--a historical review].

Abstract

The 25th anniversary of the foundation of the journal "Anaesthesiology und Reanimation" seems to be a good occasion, first of all, to look back at the special situation regarding the opportunities open to East German anaesthetists for publishing anaesthesiological papers before and after the Berlin Wall was built and then to give a review of the history of this journal. As the author's own publication list shows, East Germans could publish papers in West German journals without any problems before a major reform of the universities, bringing drastic changes, was introduced in East Germany in 1969. It became practically impossible to publish papers in West German journals because the "Directorates of International Relations", which had been installed at all universities in 1969, supervised the entire correspondence with persons and institutions in all foreign countries, in particular West Germany, the other West European countries and the countries of North and South America. Thus, East German anaesthetists were forced to publish in non-anaesthesiological East German journals because there was no journal of anaesthesiology in East Germany until "Anaesthesiologie und Reanimation" was founded as journal of the "Society of Anaesthesiology and Reanimation of the GDR" in 1976. The problems arising from the introduction of this journal under socialist conditions, including political pressure and control through the "General Secretariat of the Medical Scientific Societies of the Ministry of Health of the GDR" as well as technical problems with the publisher and the printers, are described. In spite of all these problems, which were overcome by the editor-in-chief with the aid of his colleagues on the editorial board and the scientific advisory council, this journal was initially published with a circulation of 1,200 copies in 1976 and its circulation increased to 1,600 copies in 1989. The journal proved to be of great benefit to East German anaesthetists and anaesthetists from other East European countries. It was included in an international exchange programme of anaesthesiological journals, which was particularly helpful for East German anaesthetists because they could not subscribe to West German, West European or American journals due to a lack of hard currency. The international exchange of the journal led to an increasing number of authors from West Germany and other West European countries and even from the USA and Canada who published papers in "Anaesthesiology und Reanimation". The "silent revolution" in 1989 brought new problems. The journal was primarily an organ of the "Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy of the GDR", but with the end of the GDR, this society was dissolved on 23rd October 1990. Fortunately, "Anaesthesiologie und Reanimation" was taken over by the "German Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Medicine" as an organ of this society, in which the former members of the East German society were gathered. The next problem was that the publisher "VEB Verlag Volk und Gesundheit", Berlin and "Verlag Gesundheit GmbH", Berlin respectively ceased to exist in 1992 and we had to look for another publisher. We were very happy that "Selecta Verlagsgesellschaft mbH", Munich, later Wiesbaden, was interested in this journal and took it on in the same year and has now published it since that time with a circulation of 1,000 copies. The chequered history of "Anaesthesiology und Reanimation", the subtitle of which has been changed to "Journal of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Therapy, Emergency Medicine and Pain Therapy" in 1991, clearly shows, on the one hand, the difficult political circumstances under which the development of anaesthesiology took place in East Germany, and demonstrates, on the other, the special problems of the foundation of a medical journal under socialist conditions with which the editorial board in general and the editor-in-chief in particular were confronted and how they tried to overcome the