Gustav Ehrlich was the sixth child of the respected and successful owners of a fashion shop, Felix Ehrlich and his wife Clara. He was born in Bad Kissingen on December 6, 1889 and grew up in the “Ehrlichhaus” (house of the Ehrlichs) in Ludwigstrasse. Since September 1899, he had attended Kissingen Realschule which he successfully graduated from in July 1905.

At the beginning of World War I, Gustav studied engineering in England and was interned in a camp as he was a German citizen and thus a citizen of an enemy country, his registration card in the municipal archive of Bad Kissingen has an entry mentioning a camp for war prisoners in Canada.

Gustav Ehrlich married Edith Spiegel, who came from Breslau and lived in Bochum, and moved to Bochum with her. The couple had two children: In 1922, Reinhart Paul was born, in 1933 Robert/ Bob followed. Rather early, the family left Germany and emigrated to Toronto/ Canada in March 1934. Gustav Ehrlich died in Canada in 1966.