In memory of the founding editor Prof. Dr. med. Ralf Herbert Gahr, MHBA.

It was with great dismay that we received the news of the death of our colleague Prof. Dr. Ralf Herbert Gahr, who passed away on August 2, 2020. Professor Gahr has served medicine as a passionate trauma surgeon for decades and shaped many colleagues as a visionary. Prof. Dr. Ralf Gahr, born on June 14, 1952 in Dortmund, studied human medicine in Cologne and London from 1970 to 1976. He obtained themedical doctorate degree in 1976. After completing his training as a specialist in surgery at the Dortmund Municipal Clinic, he specialized in the field of trauma surgery and was appointed senior physician at the Dortmund Trauma Clinic in 1986. His broad professional interest was reflected in his specialist qualification for surgery and the additional qualification in traumatology in the acquisition of the qualification for special trauma surgery, special hand surgery and surgical intensive medicine. For decades, Prof. Gahr was very committed to the rescue service, first as an emergency doctor, later for many years as the chief emergency doctor. In 1993 he was awarded the Silver Badge of Honor by the Medical Board of LÄKWestfalen-Lippe for the establishment of the emergency doctor training in North Rhine-Westphalia and for participating in the conception and development of the structures of chief emergency doctors (LNA) in Germany. In 1993, Prof. Gahr took over the management of the Clinic for Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery at the St. Georg City Hospital in Leipzig. Here, we got to know him as a colleague who was sparkling for action and visions, who expanded and modernized the clinic with energy, diligence and perseverance and was one of the first in Germany to set up an interdisciplinary trauma center. Figure 1: Prof. Dr. Ralf Gahr © Klinikum St. Georg gGmbH, Delitzscher Straße 141, 04129 Leipzig