Alvin Paavig, 2010
Picture: David Paavig, 2010

As a young man (1922) Dr. Pressel received a series of massage treatments and this inspired him to later become involved with massage therapy himself. He studied medicin and became a doctor specializing in natural medicine and homeopathy. He did his residency in Jena at a clinic for natural medicine. The subject of his doctoral thesis was syphilis.

In his first medical practice in Bayreuth, from 1933 on, most of his patients received back massages, probably also in the side lying position (see picture).