This is an interview with Frieda Glöckner (born Leenart) who was EMBL's meetings secretary since 1975. In this interview, Glöckner describes how she worked at Brussels since 1970 close to EURATOM and how she perceived the development of EMBL from a project to its foundation in this position. Glöckner also describes the signing agreement of EMBL in Geneva at Cern and the installation of the first buidlings. Beyond that, this interview contains some description of the Second World War period Glöckner witnessed as a child and how she settled up it Heidelberg when EMBL was established there.

This is an interview with the structural biologist Heinrich Stuhrmann who joined EMBL in 1976, leading the EMBL Hamburg site. In this interview, Heinrich Stuhrmann gives an insight into his work in the field of small-angle scattering. It contains Stuhrmann's descriptions of the relation towards the other EMBL sites and especially to the DESY-campus in Hamburg. Furthermore, Heinrich Stuhrmann reflects the scientific research and the conditions of use of the technical equipment in Hamburg while he was the scientific leader, but he also speaks about his later career at the GKSS and his later work in polarised neutron scattering using tyrosine radicals.

This is an interview with the French cell and molecular biologist Daniel Louvard who was Head of a research group at EMBL Heidelberg from 1978 until 1982. In this interview, Daniel Louvard explains why he decided to work at EMBL as a postdoc and how he developed his research on epithelial functions, on membrane trafficking and on producing monoclonal antibodies at that time. Furthermore, Daniel Louvard describes the working environment at EMBL, how he later became Head of Unit at the Pasteur Institute and his scientific work after his time at EMBL, especially his foundation of the ATIP-avenir program.

This is an interview with Alan Sawyer who started to work as a technical assistant at EMBL Heidelberg in 1990 in Thomas Kreis' and Eric Karsenti's group. In this interview, Alan Sawyer describes how he started working in the UK before coming to EMBL, how he developed his methods of producing antibodies at EMBL Heidelberg and how he came to work on microarrays at EMBL after 2001 as well as on one of the Core Facilities after 2008. Furthermore, this interview contains some anecdotes of Alan Sawyer's life in Heidelberg and how he perceives the process of professionalization of EMBL over time.

This is an interview with Nadia Rosenthal who has been the Head of Mouse Biology Unit at EMBL Monterotondo (Rome) and Senior Scientist at the Developmental Biology Unit at EMBL Heidelberg from 2001 until 2011. In this interview, Nadia Rosenthal describes how she came to the position as Head of the Mouse Biology Unit at EMBL Rome and how she was involved in establishing the Mouse Biology program there. The working conditions at the EMBL in Rome are part of this interview as well as Nadia Rosenthal's contribution in relation to making Australia the first associate member of EMBL.