scheler studied medicine at the universities of göttingen and freiburg. in 1954 he received his doctorate in göttingen. scheler's habilitation on extracorporal hemodialysis followed in 1964. from 1967 until 1993 he was director of the department for nephrology and rheumatology of the uniklinik göttingen. he was married to elisabeth correns, granddaughter of carl erich correns, he had three children, and one grandchild. scheler died on 4 june 2002 in göttingen.