Welcome Address by the President of the European Society of Ophthalmology (SOE)

It gives me an immense pleasure to welcome, on behalf of the European Society of Ophthalmology (SOE), all the delegates to the 105th Congress of the German Ophthalmological Society (DOG).

SOE is proud to have been asked to take part in the celebration of the 150th year of DOG. We feel that our participation in this meeting is a fitting extension of a long-lasting and fruitful
relationship between DOG and SOE and, indeed, this is the third time that DOG has invited SOE to participate in its meetings:
in 1976 we were together in Hamburg and,more recently,
in 2005, in Berlin.

It is noteworthy that even the meetings of the Heidelberg Ophthalmological Society, founded in 1857 by Hermann von Helmholtz, always had a major European international presence. These august gatherings gave eventually an impetus to the foundation of the European Society of Ophthalmology and, this June, SOE celebrated its 50th anniversary at its Jubilee Congress in Vienna. There, we also remembered the contribution of the great German ophthalmologist,
Professor H. K. Mueller of Bonn, who was one of the Founding Fathers of SOE.

Every four years, SOE bestows its greatest honour, the Helmholtz Medal, onto the scientist who has done the most for European Ophthalmology, commemorating the immense contribution von
Helmholtz and so many other German ophthalmologists have made over the past 150 years.

While we appreciate this fruitful collaboration between DOG, SOE and our international partners, we always look ahead to ways of strengthening and improving our relationship.We hope that SOE, and all the European Ophthalmological Societies it comprises, will continue to benefit from DOG’s long tradition and experience as we embark on the next 150 years in the spirit of collaboration and mutual help, to the benefit of all European ophthalmologists and, ultimately, of our patients.

Zdenek J. Gregor,
President of the European Society of Ophthalmology (SOE)

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