Writing the opening for a formal letter in German

I need to write a formal letter, but have no idea what the German equivalent of the English "To Whom It May Concern"
would be. Could anyone offer a suggestion? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

ich...

Thankyouthankyouthankyou! I will be so glad when this application is out of the way!

Let me understand this. You have a formal German letter to write, where your only problem is how to write the introduction? Or are we going to see subsequent daily postings along the lines of "How do I translate "my name is John Doe and I would like to introduce myself to your company"" followed the next day by "Can someone help me to translate "I am interested in applying for your advertised post for bilingual translators"", etc., ad infinitum...

Could be worse. She could have asked how to translate "I am BARRISTER PRINCESS LIUTAIA, the only Daughter of late KING AND QUEEN Edward LIUTAIA, My father was a very wealthy cocoa merchant in Abidjan,the economic capital of Ivory Coast before he was poisoned to death by his business associates on one of their outing to discus on a business deal. When my mother died on the 21st October 1984, my father took me and my younger brother PRINCE samuel very special because we are motherless."

woof.

The answer given by UrbanAngel is adequate but it really is a case of to whom you're writing.

I feel a job application is being writte by liutaia...Good Luck!

hahaha!
nope, just the one line, don't worry. The rest of the letter I've got pretty much figured out.
Thanks IMIC! It's an application for a school, but it's all the same.
and, yes BD, it would be very useful to know how to say all that! after all, how else ought one of the noble family Liutaia present oneself appropriately? of course one needs to be properly announced! Perhaps I shall fire my current herald and get myself a German one, negating all translating issues