[Werner Schäfer. A life as researcher and teacher]

The following short biography recalls Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Werner Schäfer, emeritus professor and director of the Medical Biology Department of the Max-Planck-Institut für Virusforschung in Tübingen and scientific member of the Max-Planck Society who died on 25th April 2000. He was one of the most distinguished pioneers of animal virology and one of the great personalities who since the Second World War have helped German science to regain its international reputation. In a brief synopsis the important results of his work on the viruses he used as models to conduct his research have been portrayed. As a result of Schäfer's scientific conception to gain insights into the functional characteristics of viruses by looking at their structure, the field of virology has taken new directions and founded a school whose pupils try to continue his successful and much honoured life's work.