Hermann Reichenspurner went to a medical school in Munich. He started his training as a resident at the Uni-versity Hospital in Munich in 1985. In 1987 he joined as a registrar the Department of Cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. In 1989 he went back to Munich to finish his training first in general surgery followed by a three-year additional training in cardiac surgery. In 1994 he started as a fellow of a cardi-othoracic transplantation at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Stanford University, USA. In 1997 he took a position as Associate Professor at the University of Munich. In 2001 he became chairman and full Professor at the Department of Cardiovascular surgery at the University Hospital Hamburg Eppendorf. In 2005 he took over the position as chairman of the newly founded University Heart Center Hamburg. He is Past President of ISHLT and ISMICS and Vice Chancelor of WSCTS.