The founder: Dr. med. Wolfgang Wöppel
* August 15, 1946 in Aschaffenburg
+ July 10, 2006 in Bad Mergentheim
Wolfgang Wöppel, MD, was born on August 15, 1946 in Aschaffenburg, Germany. His professional career began at the Julius Maximilian University in Würzburg. After studying medicine (1966-1971) and training as an internist, he held a leading position at the Mosbach/Baden District Hospital, specializing in intensive care medicine, endoscopy, X-ray diagnostics including angiography, and the care of oncological patients.
On the basis of this broad orthodox medical training, he considered the possibilities of purely conventional cancer therapy to be insufficient. This insight was confirmed by his acquaintance with the famous oncologist Dr. Josef Issels, who, with his naturopathic methods and holistic way of thinking, challenged the purely orthodox cancer treatment of his time and himself had extraordinary successes to show. Issels' theories and methods had a lasting influence on the alternative treatment of cancer patients. Working with Dr. Issels in his day clinic at Tegernsee, Dr. Wöppel gained valuable experience in the field of holistic cancer therapy in the years 1982-1984.
On February 25, 1985, Dr. Wöppel opened the Hufeland Clinic for Holistic Immunobiological Therapy in Bad Mergentheim, which has since become Germany's oldest biology-based specialty clinic. Based on Issel's treatment methods, Dr. Wöppel developed his own concept, the core message of which he often formulated as follows: "In this (holistic) view, cancer is not just a disorder of a single organ, but always an expression of a comprehensive disorder of the whole person in his unity of body and soul. The therapeutic procedure must therefore be oriented to the individual causes that may have led to the disease. Only if these causes are consistently reduced can the inner physician, who is in each of us, fully develop his healing powers. Such a therapeutic approach does not fight nature, but plans its healing powers; it does not destroy the human being, but builds him up and therefore opens up possibilities even where conventional methods are ineffective or even harmful.
It is considered remarkable that through the combination of basic biological therapy, special whole food nutrition, activating immunotherapy, psychotherapeutic care and conventional therapies used as gently as possible, as carried out in the Hufeland Clinic, an unusual accumulation of so-called spontaneous remissions can be observed, about which Dr. Wöppel has lectured at international symposia (Heidelberg 1997; Kallithea 1998). Some of these cases have been published.
Experts at Columbia University New York have verified and confirmed these facts in a two-year study. In July 2005, the strikingly good results were published in a renowned scientific journal:
Judith S. Jacobson DrPH, MBA et al., Cancer Outcomes at the HUFELAND (Complementary/Alternative Medicine) Clinic: A Best-Case Series Review, Integrative Cancer Therapies, Vol 4, Number 2, 2005.
Dr. Wöppel has received worldwide recognition for his knowledge and experience in the field of holistic cancer treatment. As an expert he was invited to national and international congresses, in numerous television appearances, reports and press articles he presented his therapy concept.
Despite his numerous commitments, he also enjoyed social functions in his hometown of Bad Mergentheim and was active in the parish and city councils until his death in 2006. In his private life, as a father of four, he enjoyed family life, to which he gave the highest priority. He sought a balance to his intensive professional activities in nature and in his many interests: He liked to go hunting, was an enthusiastic chess player, recreational pilot and amateur magician, who often amazed his audience with his humorously designed magic arts.
His life's work is being continued: Under the direction of his wife Gabriele and his daughter Angelika, the Hufeland Clinic continues to give new hope and vitality to cancer patients and patients with other chronic diseases.