are very much the same, and that it is this aspect of astrophysics which governed the scientific lives of both of our distinguished colleagues and friends and allowed them to make major contributions to all those fields. Apparently this viewpoint was shared by many colleagues and it was therefore not surprising that in response to our invitation everybody who had been invited agreed to come and to present a talk. The workshop then turned out to be a real success. In contrast to highly specialized conferences, fundamental problems as well as very recent devel­ opments were discussed and the participants appreciated the opportunity to exchange ideas.