According to his student’s file of Bad Kissingen Realschule, Ludwig Stern was born in Würzburg on February 16, 1921. His father Joseph Stern who came from a Steinach family had moved to Bad Kissingen in March 1920 after his marriage to Thekla Heimann from Schwanfeld. He had founded a business for ironware and agricultural machinery there. On August 6, 1924 – in the meantime the family had moved to Hemmerichstrasse – Ludwig’s younger sister Anna (called Anni) had been born. But happy family life wasn’t to last long: After Josef Stern had been killed in a car accident in October 1929, Thekla had to run the business during the global economic crisis and care for the family on her own. In the Nazi Era, the economic situation got even worse because of the boycott actions, though her brother Hermann provided some financial support.

Since April 1931, Ludwig Stern attended Kissingen Realschule and his grades show that he was an excellent student. All his class teachers confirm his diligence, being well-gifted and endowed with imagination. His conduct is described as “proper” though “a little talkative and cheeky”. His teacher Gagel describes him as someone “thinking independently”, “gifted, extraordinary in mathematics and physics”. With the onset of the Nazi Era, the situation of the Jewish student became difficult as he was increasingly exposed to anti-Semitic hostilities. His class teacher Heinrich Fichtl makes that known in a remark in his student’s file at the end of class 5 (1935/36): He “had great problems in the class being the only Jew. But everybody wants to get his homework, especially in maths…”. Ludwig Stern intended to study medicine, but the doors to a graduation (Abitur) were closed on him. After class 5, he had to leave the school at the beginning of April 1936, though his class teacher attested him to be “docile and very ambitious”, “his diligence and his behavior commendable, his performance very good”.

As it was, he left Kissingen Realschule when he was 15 in order to start an apprenticeship as a banker in the vicinity of Augsburg. Since April 1937, he attended a Jewish Middle School in Frankfort/ Main. After the summer holidays he applied to Oberrealschule in Würzburg and Realschule Bad Kissingen, but his applications were denied, even though in those days Jewish students couldn’t be excluded from classes just like that. There are no reasons to be found in the file. Eventually, he was accepted at Augsburg Oberrealschule. 

But as early as in 1938, Ludwig Stern decided to emigrate. As a 17-year-old he emigrated to Holland and waited in a home for Jewish youths for the entry permit to the USA they had applied for. In his friend Moritz’ letter, the situation of the youths is explained: Unsuspecting, but looking to the future full of fear, without the chance of working, they have nothing left but waiting. They were very disappointed when they realized that there was also anti-Semitism in Holland. Their only consolation and entertainment in their insecure situation were literature, philosophy and the founding of their own home paper that dealt with culture and politics. Moritz explains the experiences he and his friend Ludwig had to make: “They are the experiences of young children who have been separated from their parents and homes by the brutal force of the mighty.” In April 1940, Ludwig managed to flee to the USA via Holland.

There, Ludwig tried everything to be able to fetch his mother and sister to America, but without any success. His mother Thekla turned to her siblings who had already emigrated to the USA. She hoped that her relatives would pay for her crossing and provide a guarantee for her. Ludwig was able to get hold of the necessary guarantors for Thekla and Anna Stern, but none of the relatives agreed to paying the cost of the crossing for the two of them. Thus, all efforts to save mother and sister came to nothing.

In 1949, Ludwig Stern married Therese Kappenmacher from Haigerloch in the USA, who had at first emigrated to Palestine. In the 1950s, they lived in Hennepin in Minnesota where their three children William (Lewis), Tamara (Ann) and Richard (Joseph) were born. Ludwig Stern, who called himself “Lewis” in the USA, died in New York in July 1979. His wife wrote in a letter that he committed suicide because he could never get over the fact that he hadn’t been able to save his mother and his sister. His widow outlived him by decades. She died in 2013, at the age of 88.