 He served actively in the field until 1916, when he was severely wounded.He married Elfriede Pesé (died in 1918) with whom he had two children – a son Walter Werner Michael who died in 1943 by tuberculosis in Switzerland and a daughter, Margit Martha who died in South Africa in 1982.On 19 December 1918 he married his second wife Elisa ("Lilly") Emma Hofer.