Jürgen Witzke Photo Award

A publisher’s thank you to the “governor”!

Heinz-Jürgen Witzke, who founded Beta Verlag more than 30 years ago, is still very much a presence in the facilities and the magazines of our publishing house despite the fact that he is no longer involved in its day-to-day management. The delightful, detailed and imaginative designs of our conference room and our entrance hall are attributable to him, then there are the vast quantities of photos he takes at the congresses he attends and the many small but significant daily routines in the office that he can be said to have “invented” and adapted. He is one of the few to have thought at a suitably early stage about the best way to transfer the company that he and his peers together created into new and younger hands. He progressively assigned his responsibilities to others and retired from the daily life of running the company. This does not mean that he has disappeared off our radar – thankfully, we can still meet with him at home to discuss strategy and continue to be grateful for his suggestions, input and ideas. He is truly one of the “old-school” of entrepreneurs – incredibly creative, sharp, determined, unstoppable, impatient, impulsive and bursting with good ideas and geniality. He created the Beta media empire with flair and vision, drawing on his own lifeblood in the process, and at an early date discovered and opened up the routes that many other publishing houses would also take at a much later period. We now have a media enterprise that can be said to have had its humble beginnings in a kitchen (if not actually in the proverbial garage) and which in the meantime has gained 30 years’ of experience in its business sector, a company that now operates to a marked extent through the internet, that organises seminars and delegation tours, provides seminar facilities and – because, after all, there is always the child within us – publishes a magazine on playground design and construction. There are many qualities that characterise Jürgen Witzke, of which I would like to cite just two here: His passion for innovation and pastimes is apparent from the countless excellent photographs he has taken – landscapes, close-ups and some more unusual images. He has the special ability to recognize what is extraordinary about a simple front door, the beauty in a leaf and the aesthetic effect of disused railway tracks. He can capture these small but fascinating details in his pictures, some of which are on display on the walls of our offices. But what is closest to his heart is the topic of international military and disaster medicine. MEDICAL CORPS INTERNATIONAL FORUM, which made its own, if miniscule, contribution towards the rapprochement of East and West during the years of the Cold War, remains one of his favourite children. He thought up the title more than 20 years ago and it has since become a journal that is an integral part of the international community, used and valued by the military medical services throughout the world.

In view of the above, it seems a logical step to christen the Photography Prize of MEDICAL CORPS INTERNATIONAL FORUM the “Witzke Photo Award”. In this way, we not only combine two of his most prominent characteristics – we also ensure that his presence in MCIF is continued. We enjoy working for and are proud of Beta Verlag, and intend to continue to develop and expand MEDICAL CORPS INTERNATIONAL FORUM along the lines originally set out by Jürgen Witzke.

Heike Lange

Every two years, a jury formed by the Chairman of the International Editorial Advisory Group, the Editor-in-chief, the Managing Editor and the Production Manager of MCIF will select 3 photographs out of all entries over these two years for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place of the Jürgen Witzke Photo Award. The respective prizes will be awarded in 2012.

Photos can be submitted by any reader of MCIF at any time. They should reflect medical themes in context of operations, humanitarian missions, exercises and medical training. They must have been taken personally but may be part of an article placed in this or any other publication. With submission of the photo all rights will rest with beta-publishing. After a photo has been printed in MCIF it may be used by the submitter for other publications. The presentation of the awards will be published in the first issue of the following year.