| Ferdinand Hueppe | |
| Office: | 1st President of the DFB |
| Predecessor: | Office established |
| Successor: | Friedrich Wilhelm Nohe |
| Birth Name: | Ferdinand Adolph Theophil Hueppe |
| Birth Date: | 1852 8, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Neuwied-Heddesdorf, Kingdom of Prussia |
| Death Place: | Dresden, Nazi Germany |
| Alma Mater: | University of Berlin |
Ferdinand Adolph Theophil Hueppe (24 August 1852 – 15 September 1938) was a German physician, bacteriologist and hygienist. From 1900 to 1904, he was the first Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB, German Football Association) president.
From 1872 to 1876, Hueppe studied medicine at the University of Berlin, afterwards serving as a military surgeon. From 1880 to 1884 he was a member of bacteriologist Robert Koch's staff in Berlin, and later worked at Carl Remigius Fresenius' institute (the Chemischen Institut Fresenius) in Wiesbaden. From 1889 to 1912 he was a professor at Charles University in Prague.
Hueppe is remembered for his pioneer investigations of hormesis in regards to chemical stimulation/inhibition of bacterial growth. The eponymous "Hueppe’s rule" is an historical term synonymous with hormesis.
Hueppe promoted a völkisch type of racial hygiene in which Aryans and Jews were considered separate races. He advocated Arnold Rikli's light and air baths as well as physical exercise.[1]
Hueppe opposed vegetarianism and characterized German vegetarians as "feminized men" who degenerated the Aryan race.[1] He argued that "Powerful Aryan elites" risked degeneration if they turned away from the omnivorous diet that had made their bodies and nation strong.[1] Hueppe stated that the earliest humans were meat eaters and that modern humans survive best on an omnivorous diet because a vegetarian diet is excessive in carbohydrates and lacks in protein. He described vegetarians as the "victims of an unnatural mode of existence".[2] [3]
His book on bacterial research, Die methoden der bakterien-forschung, was later translated into English and published in 1886 with the title "The methods of bacteriological investigation".[4] Other noted efforts by Hueppe include: