At the end of 2003, Professor Philipp Heitz (Fig. 1) resigned from his position as member of the Board of Managing Editors of the journal. He had been associated with Virchows Archiv as managing editor for 5 years, having been first invited to become a reviewer for Virchows Archiv B in 1994, when Ulrich Pfeifer was the editor of that journal. As managing editor, he was mainly responsible for manuscripts dealing with endocrine pathology. We are deeply indebted to him for his many years of dedicated service to the journal and we are happy that he is going to stay on as member of the editorial board.

Fig. 1
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Professor Philipp Heitz

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Professor Fred Bosman (Fig. 2), head of the Department of Pathology at the University Hospital of Lausanne, and Professor Heinz Höfler (Fig. 3), head of the Department of Pathology of the Technical University of Munich, have joined us as managing editors of Virchows Archiv. Both have been associated with the journal as editors since 1994. Fred Bosman and Heinz Höfler have outstanding reputations as scientists in the fields of gastrointestinal and molecular pathology and are members of a large number of international societies. Fred Bosman also served in the Executive Committee of the European Society of Pathology and is one of the organizers of the EuroCellPath courses. Professor Höfler is currently chairman of the European Society of Pathology Working Group on Molecular Pathology.

Fig. 2
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Professor Fred Bosman

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Fig. 3
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Professor Heinz Höfler

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With the appointment of two new managing editors, the total number of managing editors has increased to six. Professor Höfler will run the editorial office, which will remain in Kiel in the capable hands of Mrs. Brütting and be supervised from Munich. This will be possible because we are introducing an online submission and reviewing system based on Manuscript Central. Professor Klöppel, who until now has managed the editorial office from Kiel, will concentrate in future on the recruitment and supervision of review articles.

Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the editors and all other scientists from various countries who have helped us to make Virchows Archiv a successful journal of the European Society of Pathology.