Wilhelm Löffler (medical doctor)

Wilhelm Löffler (1887 to 1972) was a Swiss physician and professor of internal medicine, remembered chiefly for the two conditions that carry his name, Loeffler endocarditis and Löffler's syndrome. He studied in several cities, among them Geneva, Vienna, Strassburg and Basel, and obtained his doctorate in 1911. In 1921 he succeeded Otto Nägeli as associate professor of internal medicine and director of the medical polyclinic at his institution, and from 1937 to 1957 he headed its medical clinic as full professor. He also served two years as dean of the medical faculty and went on giving regular lectures until 1971. Students knew him as a caring teacher who pressed them to understand the material and who promoted the scientific method in clinical medicine. He championed X-ray screening for tuberculosis among civilians and in the armed forces, which helped reduce the number of cases, and in 1955 he confirmed a diagnosis of thrombophlebitis in the novelist Thomas Mann.