Heinrich Stern was born in Bad Kissingen on November 5, 1870 as the son of the merchant Hermann Stern and his wife Karoline, née Poppermann. He attended Kissingen Realschule since October 1880 up to class 5. Why he left the school in spite of rather good grades, is not known.

In May 1904, Heinrich Stern married Babette Hamburger, who was 10 years his junior. She came from a long-established Hammelburg cattle dealers’ family and moved to her husband in Bad Kissingen after the marriage. In November 1911, Kissingen Magistrate provided Heinrich Stern with the citizens’ rights of the town. He was the co-owner of a men’s fashion shop in Ludwigstrasse 8.

There is not much known about the further life of the Stern couple. In August 1941, literally at the last moment, they succeeded to escape from Germany. Only few months later, in October 1941 Hitler’s government enacted a complete ban on emigration. They first emigrated to Cuba and in December 1942, they got to the United States via Miami/ Florida and settled in Chicago.

After the war, Heinrich Stern, together with his nephews Manfred and Sanibert Holländer, filed a refund claim against the German Empire for the Villa Concordia (today Maxstraße 24). Heinrich's sisters Nanette and Selma, the owners of the imposing property, had been deported and murdered in 1942, and the house had been confiscated by the German Reich. The property was returned in March 1950, but the legal dispute over rights of use dragged on for years.

Heinrich Stern died in Chicago in July 1951 at the age of 80; his wife Babette outlived him by some years and died in Chicago in April 1957.