An International Conference on the Application of Fracture Mechanics to Ma- terials and Structures was held at the Hotel Kolpinghaus in Freiburg, West Ger- many, June 20-24, 1983. It was attended by more than 250 participants from different countries which include Austria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Democratic Republic of Germany, Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, People's Republic of China, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, USSR and Yugoslavia. Conference Co-Chairmen were Professor G. C. Sih, Lehigh University, Bethle- hem, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., Dr. E. Sommer, Fraunhofer-Institut fur Werkstoff- mechanik, Freiburg, FRG and Professor W. Dahl, Rheinisch-Westfalische Technische Hochschule, Aachen, FRG. Dr. Wenrich, as the representative of the Land Baden-WUrttemberg, delivered the opening address with the remarks that International Conferences can serve the means to further enhance the technology development of a country. He empha- sized that the Federal Republic of Germany is presently in need of strengthening the engineering manpower in order to keep her in a competitive position. The Conference was officially cast off with the leading plenary lectures that under- lined the theme of the technical lectures for the first day. This pattern was observed for the five-day meeting. The interplay between material and design re- quirements was the theme and emphasized in many of the technical presentations that amounted to approximately ninety (90) papers.