The 5th Open German-Russian Workshop on Pattern Recognition and Image Understanding extends the series of highly successful workshops held previously in Berlin (1990), St. Petersburg (1991), Erlangen (1993) and Valday (1996). Following the tradition, it became a new forum providing unique possibilities for scientific exchange between scientists from eastern and western Europe. The Bavarian Research Center for Knowledge Based Systems (FORWISS) advances basic research and methodologies, opens up new applications in cooperation with companies, develops prototypical solutions and tools, and trains young researchers. About 75 persons are employed in six research groups at Erlangen, Munchen, and Passau, working on decision support, databases, cognitive systems, knowledge acquisition, economics, and knowledge processing.