Abstract. The paper recalls the period 1988-1993 when the research on parallel algorithms and their implementation started in Karl-Marx-Stadt (renamed to Chemnitz in 1990). We consider the research group formed at this time and the hardware available to this group. Parallel hardware as the transputer is considered and the ancient parallel computers from that time are depicted. The group has been formed by the series of workshops and seminars that took place; and the FEM-Symposium is still organized annually. We will focus on a few of these activities and present the developments in hardware, numerical methods, parallel algorithms and analysis that have been discussed between professors, research assistants and students. The paper contains also a brief view on parallel computers available to that group today and some examples document how the computing power has increased during a period of more than 20 years.