Willi Walter Seifert (19 June 1921 – 11 June 1964) was born in Bickendorf, a district of Cologne. He was the son of a glass-grinder and had a brother. From 1927 to 1935 he attended the Volksschule in Ehrenfeld, and afterwards started an apprenticeship as metal worker at a machine factory, which he successfully finished in 1939. In 1941 he was drafted into the Luftwaffe and attended the Waffentechnische Schule der Luftwaffe (Weaponry Technology School of the Airforce) for a year. By the end of the war he was a sergeant in an anti-aircraft battery and afterwards was a prisoner of war for several months.