Employees who built up social work; committed people who got the associations and societies up and running; teachers who founded university education are retiring and new colleagues are also asking about the special challenges of social work in the eastern federal states, reflecting on their own socialization and dealing with the biographical backgrounds of addressees in East Germany.

It is therefore time for a reflective-critical review and a look at the genesis of social work in East Germany. How can the specifics of social work in East Germany - arising from the political, social and institutional starting points and changes, economization and personal experiences - be understood and explained? And what tasks arise from these developments of the last 30 years for social work as a whole?