Nonequilibrium Physics at Short Time Scales III The paper presents the textofthetalkMinkowskigaveatthe80thMeetingoftheGermanNaturalScientists formatIsbn:Softcover 9781493953370 The paper presents the textofthetalkMinkowskigaveatthe80thMeetingoftheGermanNaturalScientists and Physicians in Cologne on September 21 This is followed by two papers dealing with an issue of considerable relevance to developing countries This ongoing series of interdisciplinary workshops provided an opportunity for the presen tation and exchange of results describing nonequilibrium phenomena at short time scales recent developments in computing power have provided the possibility of accurately comparing ab initio and approximate methods