Kitamura sensei, ladies and gentlemen: the remarks which follow will be the last communication by which our colloquium on cataclysmic variables is to be brought to its conclusion; and I appreciate the invitation of its organizing committee to use the remaining time we have together in the congenial atmosphere created for us at Bamberg, in an attempt at a summary of what we heard here in the past few days from several hundred colleagues who gathered here from many parts of the world - to survey the present state of our subject, and consider together where do we go from here. The time for this purpose makes it impossible to touch upon all exciting developments in the field of cataclysmic variables reported at Bamberg in the past few days; but certain general features have emerged from the programme of our colloquium which it may be appropriate to recall.