Buchwald studied medicine in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), Danzig (Gdańsk), and Jena and obtained his doctorate at the University of Hamburg. From 1970 to 1982 he was senior physician at the Klinik Franken of the Bundesversicherungsanstalt für Angestellte in Bad Steben, and from 1982 to 1989 he was chief physician at the Klinik am Park in Bad Steben. He retired in 1990.
