ABSTRACT
I have great pleasure in welcoming you all. I am glad to see that so many of you have come in spite of the late invitation. Last year, as you know, we had a conference at Tutzing where we discussed the mutual perceptions with U.S. and Soviet scholars. We planned more than a year ago to have a meeting in 1990 at Ringberg Castle where scholars from the other countries of Eastern and Western Europe should add their perceptions of the situation to the ideas to be found in the Soviet Union and the United States. It was hoped that a complete panorama of the complex web of cross-relations between the individual partners in East and West would emerge, with an identification of the hopes and fears of these partners, of the proposals made for the future, and of the obstacles and difficulties that are seen and must be taken into account.
