 After completing his Abitur in Bad Homburg in 1977, Kloeppel studied agriculture in Göttingen.He attended the "Henri-Nannen-School" in Hamburg from 1983 to 1985, making his first experiences with RTL.From 1985 onwards, he worked in the network's Bonn studio, before becoming RTL's first correspondent in New York, covering the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991.