Luthe was born in 1922 in Lubeck.[15] He received his M.D. degree in Hamburg in 1947.[15] As a junior trainee, he met JH Schultz, who was the founder of autogenic training (AT), a system of self-hypnosis, which was confined to Germany and Austria before and during World War Two.[16] Luthe was impressed by the effects of AT in asthma and became Schultz's protégé.[10][17] Their collaboration continued throughout Schultz's lifetime,[2][11][16][18] despite Luthe emigrating to Canada in the late 1940s.[8]