Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very happy to be able to welcome you to Prague. French historian Ernest Denis once wrote that in Prague every stone tells a story. As you walk across the Charles Bridge, pause to remember Tycho de Brahe and Johannes Kepler who used to stroll there over 400 years ago as well as Bernard Bolzano two centuries later. I am sure that you too will fall in love with this old, inspiring, majestic, but also tragic city.

These were the words with which I had planned to welcome participants of Logic Colloquium '80 which was cancelled by the communist government. The totalitarian regime was afraid that the participating mathematicians would call for the release of their colleague, mathematician Vaclav Benda, who was serving a 5 year prison term. He was imprisoned for publicity drawing attention to politically motivated prosecution of those opposing the regime. For us, Czech mathematicians, the cancellation meant even deeper isolation from our colleagues abroad. But we never doubted that even though mathematics is very beautiful, freedom is even more so.

Logic Colloquium '98 will now commence.