Born in Leipzig on October 5, 1926, he first studied agriculture in Halle and then veterinary medicine at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Leipzig from 1948 to 1952, where he subsequently received his Dr. med. vet. degree in 1952 and was a senior assistant at the Surgical Veterinary Clinic until 1955. Due to the political situation, he moved to Bavaria and Zurich in 1955. In 1956, colleague Wintzer started as a scientific senior assistant at the Surgical Clinic for Large Domestic Animals of the Imperial University of Utrecht. Interrupted by a research stay at the Pennsylvania State University in Philadelphia, he habilitated in Utrecht in 1964. In Utrecht he acquired great scientific merits in the field of equine surgery, so that he was appointed associate professor there in 1967, before he received a call to the chair of veterinary surgery at the Clinic for Equine Diseases and General Surgery of the Freie Universität Berlin in 1969, which he accepted.

From 1969 to 1992, Prof. Dr. Wintzer was also head of the Clinic for Equine Diseases and General Surgery. In this function, he was largely responsible for the new building of the equine clinic at that time. Scientifically, Prof. Dr. Wintzer's main areas of interest were large animal surgery and forensic veterinary medicine in general, but especially equine diseases and here movement disorders. His certainly most important book “Diseases of the Horse”, colloquially known as the “Wintzer”, reached a wide circulation with a total of three editions and four translations and accompanied generations of students in Germany and Europe through their veterinary studies and beyond. For the “Berliner und Münchener Tierärztliche Wochenschrift” he acted as co-editor for decades. He was also a member of numerous professional societies and professional organizations, such as the German Veterinary Association and the Royal Dutch Society of Veterinary Medicine.  

In addition to his family, art and culture, his entire love, even after his retirement, was for “his two faculties” in Berlin and Leipzig, in whose development he took a very active part until the end. From 1992 to 1995, he was a lecturer and examiner for the subject of forensic veterinary medicine at his alma mater in Leipzig, and he was very active in the circles of friends of both faculties. The honorary doctorate awarded by the University of Leipzig in 1998 as well as the honorary membership in the Society of Friends and Sponsors at the School of Veterinary Medicine were thanks and recognition for this.

We remember Prof. Dr. med. vet. habil. Dr. h. c. Hanns-Jürgen Wintzer as an outstanding scientist, a great role model for young scientists and a far-sighted pioneer and shaper. His services to his field as well as to the School of Veterinary Medicine at Freie Universität Berlin and to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Leipzig will remain unforgotten.

Uwe Rösler, Anna Kosmol, and Tobias Ripp for the Dean's Office of the School of Veterinary Medicine

Leo Brunnberg and Jörg Aschenbach for the Society of Friends and Sponsors at the School of Veterinary Medicine

Christoph Lischer and Heidrun Gehlen for the staff of the Equine Clinic at the School of Veterinary Medicine