We bid farewell to our family member Friedrich Wolff, who passed away at the age of 85. Friedrich Wolff launched the world’s first sunbed in 1975. His motivating factors were: To imitate sunlight and thus counteract winter depression, to create a place to recharge one’s batteries and even then to stimulate vitamin D formation.

On 30 November 1984, he took part as a founding member in the founding meeting of the association PHOTOMED (“Verband Photomedizin und Besonnung e. V.), in the course of which he was elected second chairman. He remained associated with the work of the association for many years and, even after his retirement, kept his committment to the professionalisation of the industry due to his firm personal conviction. He never went tired of speaking about the biopositive effects of natural and solarium sunlight in many lectures throughout Germany and beyond. At the same time, as the owner of Wolff System GmbH based in Freiburg, he initiated research projects at renowned university clinics with the aim of using the existing biopositive effects of tanning to alleviate skin diseases such as psoriasis.

These research projects also led him to Professor Dr. sc. med. Hans Meffert at the renowned hospital “Charité”, then still based in East Berlin. Among other things, Prof. Meffert, who died in March 2022, was awarded the Arnold Rikli Prize in 1991 for his work in the field of photomedicine.

His demand for an “industry academy” was met in 1992 with the founding of the “Academy for Tanning”. The “Akademie für Besonnung (AfB)” was founded in 1992 by his brother Jörg Wolff and other board members of the existing operator and manufacturer associations PHOTOMED – “Photomedizin und Besonnung”, the “Bundesfachverband Sonnenlichtsysteme (SLS)” and the “Fortbildungwerk Sonnenlicht-Systeme (FBS)”. Until the introduction of the UV Protection Regulation in 2012, the AfB was the only recognised training academy for tanning salon operators for twenty years.

We mourn the loss of our family member, an empathetic man and unrelenting tinkerer, who not only laid the foundation stone of our industry, but was also always committed to the responsible and professional use of his invention.