I spent my childhood and youth acquiring all the experiences that obviously were necessary. Basically, my mother fulfilled my emotional needs, while initiating me to a life of helping and healing and giving me an understanding of this world. My father literally embodied the masculine, intellectual parent and incited me to think, to reason and to study. Overall, I largely learned from my parents what was in their abilities and their being.

I was attracted to operatic music at a very early age and first heard Twilight of the Gods at age 15. My second main concern was with sports. I was a passionate handball and tennis player, and many a companionship molded me in lasting terms of ‘together we are stronger‘.

In 1968, I graduated from a Vienna high school with a focus on the humanities. In those years, dealing with the substance of antique cultures and increasing my awareness of the old bodies of Greek and Roman knowledge were formative activities. Instead of taking part in a post–graduation trip, I attended two Wagner operas on the Green Hill in Bayreuth, sitting in the last tier. That summer, I eventually trained as a certified tennis instructor and tried to induce people to enjoy physical exercise by playing tennis.

I often asked myself later how I had come to decide to study medicine – and rarely was able to answer when asked by others. I can only say I moved the very way I saw was sketched out and was obviously familiar with. I completed my studies at Vienna Medical School in 1973 after slightly more than ten semesters. Acquiring the knowledge I later put to use was never a menace to me but rather a pleasure. I got to know and appreciate grand personalities at Medical School, including Professors Tuppy (biochemistry), Gisel (anatomy), Auerswald (physiology), Kryspin-Exner (psychiatry), Reisner (neurology), Deutsch (internal medicine), Kraus (neurosurgery), and Chiari (orthopedics).

I gathered my initial experiences with patients in many clinical electives at the bedside. Rarely was my work too much for me and I was guided by the tenor of learning and understanding as much as possible, and also of conceiving connections and scrutinizing mainstream concepts.

My way into surgery also seemed chalked out, although I in fact cared about other disciplines, as well, such as internal medicine, and neurology and psychiatry in particular. After quite successfully passing my viva voce examination in surgery, Prof. Fuchsig, then Head of the First University Clinic of Surgery in Vienna, invited me to join the clinic. Thus, after my residency in pathology with Stefan Wuketich and completing my first two publications, I took office at Vienna General Hospital – the institution I only left, over the past 36 years, in order to deepen my experience in practical surgery and acquire scientific training.

My first years at the University Clinic of Surgery were marked by personalities who were in positions of considerable competition and who clearly tempered my delight and ease in acquiring theoretical knowledge and practice. Again and again, it occured to me then that I would officiate differently once in a leading position. Nevertheless, those years were indeed seminal and my career was distinguished. I quickly decided to specialize in cancer surgery and found a mentor, Prof. Priesching (later to become Chief Surgeon at Lainz Hospital) who trained me in scientific oncological thinking and who was well ahead of his time in terms of many later developments.

My 16-month stay at the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda with my friend Mark Lippman had a strong impact on my further scientific development. I dealt experimentally with the hormone dependence of breast tumors and, in clinical terms, experienced the diversity of concepts and innovative therapeutical approaches then established at NCI. My stay in Bethesda paved the way to this excellent American institution for many of my later collaborators, and I got to know and appreciate many of my American colleagues and friends. Finally, my scientific work at NCI significantly contributed to my becoming Assistant Professor with a habilitation thesis in 1990.