Raimund Margreiter, born on May 16, 1941 in Fügen, Tyrol, completed his studies at the Medical Faculty of the University of Innsbruck in record time and received his medical doctorate (Dr. med. univ.) in 1965. After two years in Salzburg, he returned to Innsbruck to take up a position as a surgical resident at the University Hospital. He completed his habilitation in 1980, and in 1997 the Medical Faculty of the Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck appointed him Head of the Division of General and Transplant Surgery. In 1999 he also became Chair of the Department of Surgery. Following organizational restructuring after the establishment of the autonomous Medical University of Innsbruck, separate from the parent university, he was appointed Director of the newly consolidated University Clinic for Visceral, Transplant, and Thoracic Surgery in 2002, a position he held until 2009.

Margreiter is the most internationally renowned surgeon from Tyrol, credited with several pioneering organ transplantations both worldwide and within Austria, and he is the only surgeon to have transplanted all solid organs.

Following the first kidney transplantation in 1974—which Margreiter performed only two years after obtaining board certification in surgery—the first liver transplantation in Innsbruck succeeded three years later, and in 1979 he performed Austria’s first combined kidney–pancreas transplantation.

In 1983, Margreiter and Gschnitzer carried out Austria’s first heart transplantation. Together with other members of his well‑coordinated surgical team, he also performed the world’s first combined liver–kidney transplantation the same year.

Numerous additional groundbreaking transplant procedures followed, including:

on 23 September 1985, Austria’s first combined heart–lung transplantation,
on 10 August 1987, the first double‑lung transplantation, and
on 26 December 1989, the world’s first successful multivisceral transplantation (liver, stomach, duodenum, small intestine, and pancreas) — another milestone that further strengthened the reputation of Innsbruck’s surgical program.

One year later, the first isolated intestinal transplantation was achieved, followed by the first islet cell transplantation.

In 2000, the double hand transplantation performed on Theo Kelz attracted international attention.

Margreiter has always been not only a surgeon but also a committed scientist, convinced that successful transplantation is impossible without a thorough understanding of molecular and cellular biology. “Long‑term, high‑quality medical care cannot exist without Basic Research,” stresses Margreiter, a dedicated supporter of scientific research who, in addition to his work in transplantation surgery, also focused on oncologic surgery and served as honorary director of the Tyrolean Cancer Society.

The Tyrolean Cancer Research Institute (TKFI) and the Daniel Swarovski Research Laboratory—two highly successful centers of basic research—are also closely associated with his name.

In his younger years, Raimund Margreiter was an enthusiastic adventurer. In 1970 he took part in the rescue of Gert Judmair, who had been severely injured on Mount Kenya, and in 1978 he participated in the successful Austrian Mount Everest expedition. He completed first descents of several Himalayan rivers as part of the first Himalayan Paddle Expedition, which he led.

He accomplished the first descent (90 % solo) of the upper Amazon River, starting at approximately 3,500 meters above sea level and traversing a 600‑kilometer, sparsely populated canyon down into the Amazon Basin at 265 meters. A highlight was the descent of the Indus River past Nanga Parbat into the Indo‑Pakistani lowlands.

He has influenced entire generations of surgeons. The new, modern “Innsbruck School of Surgery” is founded on his legacy.

From his team, five professorships were filled:
2003 University of Tübingen [Königsrainer],
2009 Paracelsus Private University Salzburg [Öfner-Velano],
2015 Medical University of Innsbruck [Öfner-Velano],
Medical University of Graz [Sucher], and
2023 Medical University of Innsbruck [Schneeberger, Brandacher],

as well as numerous department head positions (Primariate):
twice in Hall in Tyrol [Steiner, Mark],
Zams [Sandbichler],
St. Johann in Tyrol [Nehoda],
twice in Kufstein [Wiegele, Spechtenhauser],
BHS Vienna [Klaus],
BHB Salzburg [Weiss],
Dornbirn [Zitt],
Klagenfurt General Hospital (LKH Klagenfurt) [Mittermair],
Ordensklinikum Linz [Biebl],
Ordensklinikum Graz [Aigner],
Kaiserslautern, Robert Bosch Hospital Stuttgart, Leonberg Hospital [Steurer],
Bolzano, Bad Neustadt an der Saale, Merano [Pernthaler],
Liechtenstein [Tabarelli],
Merano [Perathoner]