The Central Role of FORS1/2 Spectropolarimetric Observations for the Progress of Stellar Magnetism Studies

The spectropolarimetric mode of the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrographs (FORS), which was first implemented in FORS1, and then moved to FORS2 seven years ago, has made it possible to probe the presence of magnetic fields in stars of different spectral classes at almost all stages of stellar evolution. While in the early days of FORS1, many of the observations were related to magnetic Ap/Bp stars and their progenitor Herbig Ae/Be stars, recent spectropolarimetric studies with FORS2 have involved more challenging targets, such as massive O- and B-type stars in clusters and in the field, very fast rotating massive stars with magnetospheres, Wolf-Rayet stars and central stars of planetary nebulae. The role of FORS observations for stellar magnetic field measurements is summarised and improvements in the measurement technique are described