Welcome Address from the President

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to Leipzig in this quite eventful year, marked in particular by the history and rich culture of this dynamic city.

Our university celebrates its 600^th anniversary. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the former conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, turns 200 this year, and twenty years ago the
Peaceful Revolution of our country started from Leipzig.

When visiting the city, you will notice that we are not resting on tradition in Leipzig but today, with one of the most modern university hospitals in Germany and ultra-modern research institutes, we are well on the way to a successful future. The Medical Faculty, the University Hospital and a network of Leipzig research institutions have become an internationally renowned centre of science in Europe.

This pursuit towards reliable standards of treatment in medical science, the importation of knowledge and skills through modern teaching methods, and a rational policy in the provision of health care services, is also what the DOG as the scientific society of ophthalmologists is striving for.

The purpose of the 107^th congress is to follow up and discuss the developments and results in ophthalmology during the last year. The program comprises all actual aspects of modern ophthalmology. As in last year, the keynote lectures will highlight key issues. In the lecture sessions you may listen to the latest academic contributions and to the invited speakers. For the second time following last year, the patient organisation Pro Retina will have its own symposium. For the first time, our working group "Young Academics" will organise their own symposium. Then, furthermore, there will be a symposium on patient security. In Leipzig, for the first time, the DOG will organise a joint symposium with the Chinese Society of Ophthalmology on Diabetes. Further international program highlights will be a joint symposium with the American Academy of Ophthalmology on Angiogenesis and a symposium of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis, during which we shall highlight today’s significance of the most prominent German ophthalmologists.

This year, the European hosts will be the Baltic Nations. The well established European Symposium addressing the main topic of the French annual congress "Contact Lenses and Complications" will take place on Saturday. As always, during the Consilium Diagnosticum your
active participation will be asked. More than 300 posters will be attractively displayed and outstanding posters will be awarded.

You will notice that the Congress Center Leipzig qualifies in every way for this annual congress. Arrangements for free childcare have been made again for the whole duration of the congress.
There will be an attractive programme for accompanying persons. In particular, the official social programme of the congress includes a joint concert by ophthalmologists and the Pro Retina Foundation in the famous St. Thomas Church, the place where Johann Sebastian Bach worked.On Thursday evening, there will be an opening ceremony followed by a party and on Saturday, we will celebrate our festive evening in the Media City.

The Board of the German Society of Ophthalmology is looking forward to your visit to Leipzig!

Yours sincerely

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