Prof. Lorenz or Wilfried as he is known to all of us, was born in 1939. He studied medicine at the universities of Würzburg, Tübingen and Müchen and obtained his MD in 1966 for a thesis entitled ‘Histamine and histidine decarboxylase in the central nervous system and in the upper gastrointestinal tract’. In 1969, he was awarded his “Habilitation” in Clinical Chemistry with a dissertation on ‘Localisation, metabolism and question of a physiological function of histamine in salivary glands, thyroid and gastric mucosa’. He then obtained a Chair at the Philipps University of Marburg where he stayed until his retirement in 2004. Wilfried has published over 1000 papers, mostly in English but also in German, French and Spanish; including 5 citation classics for his work in the field of histamine. He supervised over 100 MD theses and 34 Habilitations and has been awarded numerous honours for his work. He received the “Großes Verdienstkreuz des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland” in 2005. It is one of the highest German honours and he received it because of his outstanding research as one of the most important German scientists, and his work on Theoretical Surgery, the Quality of Life in Medical Decision Making and Clinical Guidelines. Wilfried has been a member of the histamine family (first the Histamine Club but later renamed the European Histamine Research Society) since the first informal meeting in Lodz (1971). He attended the first formal meeting in Paris (1972) and has twice hosted the meeting in Marburg (1973, 1991). When you met Wilfried, you can not help being impressed by his enthusiasm, knowledge and love for the subject. He is a hard-working but fun-loving man who cares passionately for his subject and for the development of his co-workers. Professor Wilfried Lorenz died on the 24th of October 2014.