Hans Grauert (b. 1930 in Harem /Ems, Germany) and Reinhold Remmert (b. 1930 in Osnabrück, Germany) met at the University of Münster, where they both studied mathematics and physics from 1949 to 1954. In 1950 they were invited by Heinrich Behnke and Karl Stein to attend their "Oberseminar", which was held on Saturdays, for 2 hours from 9 a.m.

Five years after the tragic events of World War 2, Behnke's old friend Henri Cartan visited Münster. His lecture on recent developments in the theory of "Several Complex Variables" was a real eye-opener for the young students and had a strongly formative influence on them: indeed this was to determine the course of their scientific research careers from then on.

In June 1954 Grauert and Remmert received their respective doctorates from the University of Münster. In 1957 they both became lecturer (Privatdozent) there. In 1959 resp. 1960, Grauert and Remmert were appointed full professors at Göttingen resp. Erlangen.

The original German edition of "Theory of Stein Spaces" was written at a time when complex spaces, coherent analytic sheaves and the so-called Theorems A and B had already become established notions and theorems. Dedicated to Karl Stein, the book was published in 1977, and the English edition was to follow in 1979. The first announcement of the book, in Springer's promotion, consisted of the picture reproduced on the inside cover flap of this book, taken during the boat trip of the annual Bonn Arbeitstagung some time earlier, showing three men on a boat, with the minimalistic caption "Grundlehren 227".

Historical Introduction.- Chronological Table.- A. Elements of Function Theory.- 0. Complex Numbers and Continuous Functions.- 1. Complex-Differential Calculus.- 2. Holomorphy and Conformality. Biholomorphic Mappings...- 3. Modes of Convergence in Function Theory.- 4. Power Series.- 5. Elementary Transcendental Functions.- B. The Cauchy Theory.- 6. Complex Integral Calculus.- 7. The Integral Theorem, Integral Formula and Power Series Development.- C. Cauchy-Weierstrass-Riemann Function Theory.- 8. Fundamental Theorems about Holomorphic Functions.- 9. Miscellany.- 10. Isolated Singularities. Meromorphic Functions.- 11. Convergent Series of Meromorphic Functions.- 12. Laurent Series and Fourier Series.- 13. The Residue Calculus.- 14. Definite Integrals and the Residue Calculus.- Short Biographies o/Abel, Cauchy, Eisenstein, Euler, Riemann and Weierstrass.- Photograph of Riemann's gravestone.- Literature.- Classical Literature on Function Theory - Textbooks on Function Theory - Literature on the History of Function Theory and of Mathematics Symbol Index.- Name Index.- Portraits of famous mathematicians 3.