Convenor: Wolfgang Lutzeyer, ably assisted by Hansjorg Melchior,and with the help of Peter Rathert
Scientific Chair: Werner Schaefer
This was the second joint meeting with the Urodynamics Society, the first being in Los Angeles in 1980.
Eric Glen commented: “Each year the hosts add their own touch to the traditional form of the ICS meeting. He recalls the high quality of the organisation and the scientific content, the organ recital in the ancient cathedral of Charlemagne, and the welcome from the attractive and highly qualified Lady Mayor, whose detailed speech was translated into impeccable English at the Annual Dinner. The Musica Instrumentalis Group of Aachen, entertained us throughout the evening in a fashion that belied their amateur status and enthralled the young daughter of an American member who sat entranced at their feet.”
On the final evening, we had the novel experience of crossing an international border to reach Kasteel Erenstein, a medieval castle in Kerkrede in the Netherlands, for dinner music and dancing, but most of all an excellent opportunity to renew old friendships and make new ones. This is one of the most important aspects of the ICS: the informal interchange of ideas and social contact with adequate time and opportunity at the Meeting. Long may it continue!”
Werner Schaefer recalls: “we had 4 East Germans at ICS in Aachen, who joined us for the final evening to go across the border into the Netherlands, where officially the East Germans could not go. So I explained to them that I would drive in front of the buses with my private car and convince the border controls that we were a group and no need for any checks. This worked fine, except that one of the dear communists did not come to Holland but went home to the DDR and reported to the authorities the "illegal" border crossing of the others. Luckily this same guy was driven out of position after the "unification.”
“The venue was the main auditorium of the RWTH (Rheinisch-Westfaelischen Technischen Hochschule) Aachen, the KARMAN Auditorium, named after Theodore von Karman, a leading aeronautical engineer, specialist for wind tunnels, who (as an Hungarian Jew) made it early enough to the USA to then in 1963 became the National Medal of Science from Kennedy as the Father of the American Aerospace science. A very appropriate building for a Joint Meeting of ICS and the Urodynamics Society”.