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has sprung up with about one million implants placed peryearinGermanyalone.Thisareaofdentistry,which wasoncegreatlymistrusted,hasnotonlyfounditsway intothemainstream,butalsoevolvedintoacentralin- terface of modern dentistry in the course of digitalisa- tion. Since success has many fathers, the next genera- tionsofimplantologists,especiallyinimplantologyso- cieties,haveattimesbeenverydepreciatoryaboutthose practitioners who paved the way for implantology in Germany—with a great deal of personal commitment, securingprivatefundingfortheirstudyvisitstotheUS, and against considerable resistance from universities. They recognized opportunities and utilized them to build up their own successful business. However, from theverybeginning,theyalsostrovetoestablishasound scientificbasisfortheirempiricalexperiences. In1970,Grafelmann,incollaborationwithNewYork pioneerofimplantologyProf.LeonardI.Linkow,aswell as85interestedcolleagues,organizedthefirstimplan- tology congress at the Park Hotel Bremen, which re- sulted in the establishment of the DGZI as mentioned. Subsequently, the Bremen Implantology Seminars, which offered the first ongoing further education op- portunityintheareaofimplantology,wereheld. From1970onwards,theDGZIpublisheditsownsci- entific publication, called Orale Implantologie, which containedcasereportsandstudies—itwastheforerun- ner of today’s ImplantologieJournal. At that time, the firststatisticaldatapublishedbytheDGZIshowedthat more than 3,341 blade implants inserted in a period of fiveyears(1970–1975)hadyieldedasuccessrateof92.9 per cent. According to Grafelmann, the failures were mainlyduetomistakesintheindicationfortheatrophic jaw, insertion techniques, as well as an inappropriate prosthetic restoration. Blade implants have long since made way for highly modern implants. In the Implan- tologie Journal, former DGZI President Prof. Gyula Takacsonce,regardingimplantologypioneerProf.Ernst BauerandhisBauerscrew,likenedimplantsinthehands of Grafelmann and his colleagues to bumblebees: ac- cording to the laws of physics, bumblebees cannot fly; inthehandsofBauer,implantswork. AfterhistermasPresidentoftheDGZIandafterre- tiring as a practising implantologist, Grafelmann sup- portedtheworkoftheDGZIbymeansofhisfoundation, theProf.DrGrafelmannStiftung,amongothers.Several yearsago,forexample,hemadeadonationtowardsthe promotion of research, further development and edu- cation activities to the association at its 42nd annual congressinHamburg.Tothis,helinkedthehopeofim- proving peoples’ quality of life, also in old age, thereby followingthegoaloftheDGZI. I have experienced Grafelmann, along with his wife Barbara—who managed Oraltronics (now Sybron Im- plantSolutions),thecompanyfoundedbyGrafelmann, formanyyears—asacharmingandhumorouscontem- porary. I remember when we placed his lectures in the finalprogrammeslotbecauseofhisnever-endingtalks atourbeginners’congresses.Ihaveexperiencedandre- portedfortheImplantologieJournalthehonestappre- ciationandprofessionalattentionhereceivedfromhis colleagues at a congress in Shanghai in China (1997) andatworldcongressesheldbytheInternationalCon- gressofOralImplantologists. Prof.DrDrGrafelmannnotonlyshapedformergen- erations of implantologists, but also supported us as a young publishing house in our publishing activities fromtheverybeginning.Thereremainsbutonethingto say:manythanks!_ Fig. 3_Jürgen Isbaner, Prof. Dr Dr Hans L. Grafelmann and his wife Barbara (former manager of Oraltronics). Fig. 4_Dr Andreas Lindemann (practice successor of Prof. Dr Dr Grafelmann), Heike Isbaner (former sales force Oraltronics) and Claudia Lindemann (OT medical). Fig. 5_ Prof. Dr Dr Hans L. Grafelmann at his birthday speech. Fig. 6_The couple Prof. Dr Dr Hans L. Grafelmann with Shiho Miyake, daughter of a Japanese colleague Dr Yasumasa Miyake, and her partner. Fig. 7_DGZI past president Prof. Dr Dr Hans L. Grafelmann and Dr Friedhelm Heinemann at the 40th annual DGZI congress 2010 in Berlin. I 47implants2_2015 Fig. 3 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 7 Fig. 4