Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Staudinger's “macromolecular concept”, polymer scientists critically evaluate the past developments and future challenges of polymer science, asking: Quo vadis, Macromolecular Science? The main focus in Polymer Science has been on linear polymers or crosslinked systems (elastomers and thermosets) until the late 1980ies. The advent of dendritic polymers, i.e. dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers (HBPs) attracted wide-spread attention in the polymer community. This article gives a brief overview of the developments in the area of hyperbranched polymers and demonstrates that they have since become a novel class of polymer materials.

为庆祝施陶丁格（Staudinger）“大分子概念”一百周年，高分子科学家批判性地评估了高分子科学的过去发展和未来挑战，并问：高分子科学？直到1980年代末，聚合物科学的主要研究方向一直是线性聚合物或交联体系（弹性体和热固性体系）。树枝状聚合物的出现，即树枝状聚合物和超支化聚合物（HBP），引起了聚合物界的广泛关注。本文简要概述了超支化聚合物领域的发展，并证明它们已成为一类新型的高分子材料。