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The Berlin Lens Design Problem, the first problem posed at a European conference, differs slightly from the problems posed at the large international lens design conferences held in the USA. The problem: Decentered Center Element, created by Hannfried Zugge and myself, stresses the practical aspect of lens design. It is well known by experienced lens designers: image degradation is mainly due to decentering tolerances. Therefore, the knowledge of what happens if a lens-element is decentered is essential for the practical success of a lens which is to be manufactured. Of course, such a problem is handled today by a tolerancing program. But tolerancing an existing design is a post-process which doesn't change the design. On the other hand, up to today, no design procedure is known (at least in the literature) which makes sure that the design-process will create a lens, which can be manufactured easily. Also the Berlin Lens Design Problem doesn't change this state of the art. But dealing with the problem indeed may increase the knowledge about a decentered system, either reoptimized or not. The solutions received show that there is a practical value as well as a scientific one. In addition, we really hope that every contributor was, and hopefully every reader of this paper is, fascinated by this unusual problem.
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