Pion electroproduction on the nucleon and the generalized GDH sum rule

We present predictions for the spin structure functions of the proton and the neutron in the framework of a unitary isobar model for one-pion photo- and electroproduction. Our results are compared with recent experimental data from SLAC. The first moments of the calculated structure functions fulfill the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn and Burkhardt-Cottingham sum rules within an error of typically 5-10% for the proton. For the neutron target we find much bigger deviations, in particular the sum rule for I1(0) + I2(0) is heavily violated. (author)