The Alfred Wegner Institute for Polar Research was established as a public foundation in 1980. The Foundation currently has 780 employees and a total budget of 100 million Euro in 2005. The Institute's coastal mission is to investigate the coastal response to global change. The research units on Helgoland (founded in 1892) and Sylt (1924) maintain several time series in the German Bight (since 1962) and in the Wadden Sea (since 1984). Older descriptions enable comparisons going back to the 19th century. The Department of Marine Geochemistry develops proxies for past ocean productivity, component-specific sediment dating, carbon export, and water mass circulation based on natural radionuclides and biomarkers, and studies benthic-pelagic coupling in shelf areas related to eutrophication.