Our First Visit to Oberwolfach

Abstract

It was in December 1977 that we had our first opportunity to visit the Federal Republic of Germany. After we finished our Ph.D. studies, our teacher and the chairman of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Prof. Dr. Jan Polášek, in collaboration with his German colleagues, had managed to get an invitation for us to the conference “Methoden and Verfahren der mathematischen Physik” in Oberwolfach. We will never forget the moment when we arrived in Oberwolfach. Sitting in the conference house near the big chess board painted on the floor, we were observing everything with curiosity. Suddenly Prof. Polášsek jumped up and started to greet joyfully and loudly a tall, smiling man. It was Prof. Dr. Erhard Meister, who was one of the organizers of the conference. Prof. Meister’s expressive personal charm, cordiality and optimism immediately made a strong impression on us. Moreover, in the days that followed, we found Prof. Meister to be an excellent mathematician. There did not appear to be many people in the mathematical community whose wide knowledge, interest and brilliant thinking gave them the ability to understand immediately the merit of a scientific problem, or to formulate an opinion and discuss it. Prof. Meister was one of these outstanding people.