The German Society of Rheology (Deutsche Rheologische Gesellschaft. DRG, http://www.drg.bam.de/) celebrated its 50th birthday with a Golden Jubilee Meeting on May 14 16, 2001 in Berlin. The program of the Golden Jubilee Meeting included plenary lectures by H. Rehage (Essen), H. Munstedt (Erlangen-Nurnberg), M. Modigell (Aachen), and E. Windhab (Zurich), as well as some 60 contributed papers, poster sessions, an exhibition, and a jubilee banquet. With over 130 participants, the event was a most successful and memorable one. This issue presents peer-reviewed papers from this meeting.