Background
Ludwig was born in Mühlhausen, in Thuringia. His father was a cabinet maker, and he served as his apprentice, then received further training at the handwork school in Blankenburg in the Harz and beginning in 1926 at the Hochschule für Werkkunst Dresden, now part of the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.
Education
He enrolled in the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1928 and graduated from it in 1932.
Career
He was part of the Bauhaus group, and designed the Berlin Airlift Monument in Platz der Luftbrücke, Berlin. He became one of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe"s favourite students, and after graduating worked for him in Berlin until 1937. Until 1938 he worked for the post office.
During World World War II, he worked for construction battalions in Crossen an der Oder (now Krosno Odrzańskie, Poland) and then in Berlin, designing air-raid shelters.
After the war, in 1946, he became professor at the newly founded architecture school at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Berlin, now Berlin University of the Arts, while maintaining his own architecture firm. Ludwig never married.
He died in an accident in a bright red sports car on the AVUS, at the age of 54.