Obituary of Professor Dr. med. Heinz David (*)

This obituary of Professor Dr. med. Heinz David describes his work at the Institute of Pathology, Charité, Berlin, Germany, and his former and later life. His former life is characterized by the doom of young children whose family had to escape the Red Army for more than one thousand kilometers at the age of a teenager. They had to wander in a completely destroyed Germany until they found a home and settled down in the small town Neuruppin of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). The scientific details of his career and as well as his fall from the mighty position in the GDR pathology society and his later life are described by a staff member and his interim follower (H. Guski) and by a ‘Western’ colleague and friend (K. Kayser) from both points of view, that of inside and that of outside the former communistic society. Therefore, this article is more than just an obituary. It demonstrates the impact of working conditions such as of equipment, social environment and communication on science, and specifically on surgical pathology