ThE NEUROSURGICAL CLINIC at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich began as a small unit of the university's surgical clinic. Eduard Weber, who in 1952 became the first surgeon fully trained in the specialty of neurosurgery to join the surgical clinic's faculty, worked, until his death in 1962, to advance the new specialty. Neurosurgery became an independent department of the university in 1965, and the neurosurgical clinic moved to a new location at Beethovenplatz. Further expansion led the neurosurgical clinic to move again, in 1975, to the newly constructed Klinikum Grosshadern at the periphery of Munich. Frank Marguth, chairman of the department of neurosurgery from 1964 to 1991, had superb skill as an organizer and greatly enhanced the reputation of the department of neurosurgery. Today, the faculty of the department consists of 10 full-time staff members, 10 joint appointment staff members, and 16 residents and fellows. Annually, 2200 to 2300 procedures are performed in the neurosurgical clinic. The current philosophy in the department places heavy emphasis on subspecialization and academic training. Political and economic changes in Germany during recent years have affected the nation's public health system and pose major challenges to the department of neurosurgery.