Hans-Jürg Buff – Meet the Man Who Built a Modern Monastery on Lake Constance
Hans-Jürg Buff doesn’t sound like your typical wellness mogul. Ask him about longevity, and he’ll tell you about the Bible before he tells you about biomarkers. Ask about his €100 million health resort on the Bodensee, and he’ll tell you about the year he nearly died of liver failure — and the healer in Zurich who fixed it with nothing but his hands.
Buff was raised at the front desk of his family’s three-star hotel in St. Moritz, watching the “Top of the World” crowd ski, party, and never seem to run out of time. Decades later, that instinct for what people actually want collided with a lifelong fascination with the human body
The result is BUFF Medical Resort, where hard science — AI-assisted cardiac imaging, altitude-conditioned bedrooms that reengineer your red blood cell count while you sleep — sits beside something far older: fasting, stillness, and rituals medicine forgot it once knew.
What surrounds that science: Swiss hospitality instincts inherited from a childhood spent watching what guests actually needed, not what could be sold to them.
Not a clinic waiting to fix what’s broken, but a place built to catch what hasn’t broken yet
Interview by Frank Roller, Places of Healing
Frank Roller: I’d like to start with hospitality in general — that’s in your DNA ?
Hans-Jürg Buff: My entire life story is hospitality.
Frank Roller: Where did your journey begin?
Hans-Jürg Buff: I grew up in a hotelier family. My parents had a charming three-star property in St. Moritz, the Hotel Nolda. I grew up there — it started with nine rooms back in the 1960s. Today it has 50 rooms. As a little boy, our family lunch table was always wherever the guests were.
Frank Roller: And you still run several hotels today?
Hans-Jürg Buff: We still have six hotels in the Engadin with 450 beds. We run all of them ourselves; it’s a family business. I come from hospitality. St. Moritz, with its well-known slogan “Top of the World” — you see a great many people there with a very high standard of living. Seeing that as a small boy is seductive, because these people always seem to have time, always seem to be on vacation, going to parties or skiing. That gives you an eye and a feel for what people actually want.
I started with a three-star property, later a four-star house was added. My father also built an apartment building. Michael Schumacher used to come and go there just like the King of Spain. It didn’t have to be a five-star house — what they were looking for was what we as people could offer: understanding them.
Frank Roller: And when did the idea come to move into wellness and health resorts? The hotels in Switzerland aren’t classic wellness hotels. Was there a specific turning point in your life?
Hans-Jürg Buff: I slipped into it at 14, because I did sports and always wanted to improve. At 14 I was already having my blood drawn and fighting battles at home because of the special training methods I used. In 1979, after a trip to America, a book on eye training fell into my hands. I wore glasses and played goalkeeper in ice hockey. I actually started doing these eye-training exercises. The Bundesliga has maybe been doing that for 10 years; I’ve been doing it since 1980.
Frank Roller: And did it help?
Hans-Jürg Buff: As you can see, I don’t wear glasses. I read, I look into the distance, and I still train my eye muscles today. The human body has always fascinated me. Above all: what can I do when things aren’t running smoothly? Do I really always have to swallow painkillers, or are there other approaches? That’s how I ended up with the first chiropractor in Switzerland, in St. Moritz — the man was later banned from practicing.
I was maybe 17 at the time, because I was always searching for something new. And I was always searching for faith, for God. That interested me philosophically too. As an athlete you don’t just win — you also have to swallow a lot of defeats. Every young athlete’s goals are huge: the Olympics, the national team. I simply started thinking about what the Bible says about it. Many years later I ran quite a few self-experiments. When I tell my doctors here about them, they’re amazed I’m still alive.
Frank Roller: Where did this inspiration come from? Books?
Hans-Jürg Buff: From books. I’ve read an enormous number of books. I sometimes ask the doctors here too: “Do you know this woman, a Russian? Do you know this?” — it’s about cancer. There are approaches like that, about parasites and so on.
Frank Roller: Looking at the program here, these are very conventional-medicine-oriented therapies — apart from Ayurveda. So these alternative-medicine healing methods aren’t really offered here?
Hans-Jürg Buff: Exactly, because I never wanted that. It’s far more important to practice prevention and run an analysis of what’s currently going on with the body than to apply all the various healing methods that exist afterward.
That’s why I said: if we’re doing a cardiac MRI, I want the best people here. If I look at your heart, I can tell you in good conscience: you’re healthy, you have a healthy heart. Or I unfortunately have to tell you that isn’t the case.
Frank Roller: Those are the two worlds: diagnosis and recognition on one hand, but application on the other. You offer F.X. Mayr fasting.
Hans-Jürg Buff: For me, F.X. Mayr is based on the Bible. The Bible says: you shouldn’t eat too much. You need variety. It even describes how bread should be made — certainly not the way you buy it today. I’ve basically created a place that I think of as a modern monastery. If you understand F.X. Mayr and modern science — which has only recently come to grasp the connection between the brain and the gut — then you know: if you have a healthy, functioning digestive tract, virtually no illness can touch you, because you have a top-tier immune system.
That’s what’s broken in most people. A mild flu already sweeps people away. When it comes to nutrition science, which we learn nowhere, it’s obvious that fast food, processed products, and that kind of water can’t be healthy. I’m 66, I get up and do 40 push-ups. No problem. And I want to still be able to do that at 80 and at 100. If the Lord wants me tomorrow, I could have had every possible examination done and my heart could still stop.
That has to be said too: for all the prevention and all the modern knowledge we apply.
Frank Roller: What exactly do you do differently, or try to do differently?
Hans-Jürg Buff: Quite simply: the service. Quite simply, the time we give the client.I don’t feed you any nonsense just because it generates revenue. We’re not a sales house here — I believe we’re the only non-sales house in the entire world.
Frank Roller: This is a €100 million investment. That’s not a philanthropic enterprise — there’s a business behind it.
Hans-Jürg Buff: In the end, sure, it’s also a business. But you should know: every employee here who earns over €60,000 pays 5% into a foundation. I add another 5% myself, plus 10% of net profit. Go ask the others — those are billionaires who only care about the business. I don’t care about the business. What I actually want is for guests never to have to come back, because they’ve taken so much learning home with them from what the doctor told them.
Our goal is 5,000 new guests every year. Of course I’m happy to see guests again, but they should come because it’s good and because they find grounding here.
Frank Roller: I assume this hospitality experience, now benefits you here — that it’s not a clinic, but a place where people feel at home.
Hans-Jürg Buff: I’ll say it again: it’s essentially a modern monastery. Where else does the boss walk table to table at lunch? Buff goes to the tables. My doctors have to go to the tables. Go to La Prairie, or wherever you like — you won’t see anyone there. Someone just sets your food down. We even use mealtimes as an opportunity for a bit of conversation.
Frank Roller: On the subject of altitude air in every room — whose idea was that?
Hans-Jürg Buff: Mine! Altitude training.
Frank Roller: From personal experience with altitude training?
Hans-Jürg Buff: Everyone comes to St. Moritz: long-distance runners, rowers, speed skaters, boxers. Why? Because you train up high. But we go one step further: train low, sleep high. Here at 400 meters you get the full performance your body can give. At 2,300 meters you can’t — you never reach 80–90% capacity because of the lack of oxygen. Hence: train low and sleep high. Here I can pipe altitude air equivalent to up to 4,000 meters into every room — medically prescribed, of course.
Frank Roller: How does that work? Does the doctor first do a check to determine how high you’re allowed to sleep?
Hans-Jürg Buff: We check first with the IHT device. And we can adjust the level in every single room.
Frank Roller: What exactly is the benefit of sleeping in altitude air?
Hans-Jürg Buff:The benefit is that, at altitude with a lower oxygen level, you force your body to produce more red blood cells. From 21% saturated oxygen down here, it goes to 17% up there. You feel it.
Frank Roller: Are ideas like this also discussed or developed together with the medical team?
Hans-Jürg Buff: I take it for granted that a doctor standing in front of me knows what hypoxia means. I chose Dr. Homann because he was already doing hypoxia training back in 1997 — with a cycling team in South America. The more red blood cells you have, the better your endurance.
Frank Roller: When it comes to new alternative healing modalities, do you propose them to the medical team?
Hans-Jürg Buff: I’ve been running a peptide study on myself alone for a year and a half now. 120 tablets every 10 days, plus I inject peptides into my fat tissue — BPC-157 for muscle growth. If I now see that my telomeres have lengthened, I know for myself: I’ve gotten younger. Telomeres indicate biological age. I had my telomeres measured beforehand and I’ll have them fully re-tested at the end of September. If the result is good, Dr. Homann will have to get to grips with peptides.
Frank Roller: Where did this interest in the different modalities come from? Were there illnesses in the family?
Hans-Jürg Buff: At around 48 I had a terrible liver infection. I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since. My liver was 99.9% damaged — one in two people die from that. The doctor asked me if I was crazy for only coming in now. I then went to a healer in Zurich. He just had me lie down, put his hands on my back, and said: “Mr. Buff, if you like, come again. This will get better — don’t do anything.” Later I also had testicular inflammation; despite the strongest antibiotics from the urologist, I couldn’t wear trousers anymore, couldn’t play football, nothing. Then I went to see Dr. Peters, an alternative-medicine doctor. She did neural therapy and muscle testing. I was pain-free a day later and haven’t had another infection since.
Frank Roller: Why aren’t methods like that offered here?
Hans-Jürg Buff: Because then I’d become a clinic. I don’t make healing promises.
Frank Roller: But it’s interesting that so much emphasis is placed here on Western conventional medicine and diagnostics, while your own personal healing successes come from alternative methods.
Hans-Jürg Buff: That’s true. But Dr. Peters also takes the time for the patient. Those healing methods show me that you can often achieve a great deal with very simple things.
Frank Roller: Your other hotel projects are all in Switzerland. How did the choice fall on Konstanz, Germany?
Hans-Jürg Buff: Pure chance. We’ve lived here on the Untersee every summer for 15 years. My children went to school in Hilzingen. In winter we were in St. Moritz and homeschooled. A real estate agent called me and said there was a hotel plot available in Konstanz.
Frank Roller: The site really is wonderful, with the old tree stock and the lakeside location.
Hans-Jürg Buff: You can sleep with the window open and hear nothing but birds. We go for a morning walk with guests at 8 a.m. And working on some new ideas.
Frank Roller: You have eight children. Is any of the eight already keen on going into hospitality?
Hans-Jürg Buff: Yes! My son handles marketing here — he was involved throughout the whole construction phase. Maya finished hotel management school and is also helping out here at the moment. My oldest daughter runs a hotel in the Engadin. One son competed at the Olympics in elite sport but wants to move into the hotel business afterward too. Simone does ski jumping. Another son, on the national skeleton team, I believe wants to become a farmer.
My ultimate goal here at the Resort, in fact, is to find local farmers who produce exclusively for us. With an average of 130 guests a day, we need that kind of supply. If I can’t find farmers, we’ll set up our own farms to control the entire value chain — from meat to cheese to the radiation-free rooms.
By the way, from every bathtub you can lie back and see the park or the lake. Tonight, I hope you’ll take an alkaline bath — there’s alkaline bath powder in your room for that. Buy yourself baking soda for your home too, and take a 40-minute alkaline bath every week. It’s an incredible thing.
Frank Roller: Wonderful! Thank you so much for your time and showing us your Place of Healing.
