Good evening,
Since we have tonight the honor and the pleasure of having family members of Professor Horst Gunther Krainick with us, please allow me to remind you of the invaluable German teaching staff in the formation of our school from the very beginning.
Thanks to the efforts of our Rector Rev. Cao-van-Luan and of Dr. Le-khac-Quyen during their mission to Europe trying to find support for Hue Medical School, the University of Freiburg-in-Breisgau in Germany, through the intervention of Professor Krainick, had agreed to sponsor our Faculty. Besides sending over much needed equipments, they dispatched an elite teaching team, headed by Prof. Horst Gunther Krainick, a renowned pediatrician, author of a textbook in Pediatrics, to start the first year in 1961. Among them :

-Dr. Raimund Discher, Internal Medicine and his wife Hannelore, Lab Technician,
-Dr. Raimund Kaufman, Physiology, also a professional photographer and writer for the German magazine Scala.
-Dr. Edward Perings, Anatomy and his wife Dr. Eva Perings.
-Dr. Raimund Weil, Biochemistry
-Dr. Erich Wulff, Psychiatry
-Dr. Ruprecht Zwirner, Surgery, who recently passed away.
-Dr. Seipp, Dermatology
-Dr. Alterkoster, clinician assistant
-Dr. Schauwecker.

They assumed the teaching of the major topics with the help of Vietnamese physicians as assistants. English or French were used in teaching. Without their help, it wouldn't have been a Hue Medical Faculty to start with, and they saw the fruit of their efforts by witnessing the graduation of the first class in 1967, with Prof. Krainick and Prof. Discher presiding over the first presentation of thesis on November 30th, along with Prof. Tran-van-Vy, Prof. Nguyen-van-Hong, Prof. Caron and Prof. Dang-van-Chieu.
Unfortunately came the tragedy of the 1968 Tet Mau Than shortly after, with the VC invading Hue and slaughtering our beloved teachers, Prof. Krainick and his wife Elizabeth, Prof. Discher, Dr. Alterkoster and Dr. Nguyen-van-De. That was the darkest moment in our history. Words are not enough to describe our grief.
In 1991, with Dr. Tran-tien-Sum then president and with the help of Dr. Ton-that-Hua practicing in Germany, we organized a trip to Freiburg to lay a memorial stone on the graves of Prof. and Mrs. Krainick and of Prof. Discher, in the presence of their families.
And now, many years later, how emotional to renew contact with the daughter of Prof. Krainick, Ms Almuth Riggs Krainick, who not only had graciously accepted our invitation to come to our reunion tonight, she also brought her son Mark and daughter-in-law Sarah.
Dear special guests, your presence here tonight means a lot to all of us. It means that with time, you have forgiven us. And for this, we thank you.

Lê Đình Thương