Rostock Phoniatric Conferences Johannes Pahn A department of phoniatry at the clinic of otorhinolaryngology in the University of Rostock was established from 1968 onwards by J.Pahn with the support of the head of the clinic K.Dietzel. 52 conferences known as "Rostocker Phoniatrie-Runden" took place at this department from 1969 - 1989. Further 20 conferences induding pedaudiology were held from 1990 - 2000, the year in which J. Pahn became emeritus professor.
		The symbol of this round of phoniatry was designed by him. These meetings were focused on bringing together all those professions engaged in the therapy and training of speech and voice. For this purpose, well-known representatives working in in these special fields were invited as speakers from other countries such as Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary, Italy, Poland, the present Czech Republic, Russia and of course from Germany, too. In the GDR practical therapeutic issues were deepened in each case after them in a weekend-course until 1989 and from 1990 by two weekend-courses per year, amounting to 40 in total. Whereas until 1980 stress was laid on conferences with three events per year, this shifted to courses with two conferences per year from 1990 onwards. The 50-th round of phoniatry was held on 17 June, 1988, a meaningful day in German history. The word "Runde" (‘round’) does not mean the complete restriction in topics to speech and voice. There existed two subspecial fields of otorhinolaryngology in the GDR, viz. phoniatry and audiology. Yet, there was a fluid transition on the basis of the specialist comrnon to all. In the Rostock round of phoniatry virtually all important points of phoniatry and pedaudiology were thematically dealt with. Emphasis was placed on practical issues with training procedures of speech and speaking and singing voice as well as physical, psychological, medicamentous and surgical prodedures from the view of all participating special fields. In addition to these rounds of phoniatry, further emphasis was laid on the training and further education of subspecialists in phoniatry. In alternation with the Phoniatric Department at the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena headed by Constantin Siegert, an annual weekend course took place in the GDR as a common event in the section of phoniatry, in total 6 times in Jena and 6 times in Rostock. Due to the audiological courses of further education running parallel these topics were exclusively restricted to those of phoniatry.