Dr. Matthias was a medical doctor in the German Army in WWII. He married Ingeborg Beckmann from Meldorf/Schleswig-Holstein in 1943 and was killed 1944 in Cuza Voda near Iasi/Romania, shortly before their only son Uwe Gerhard was born. He is buried in a "comrades' grave" in Iasi's central Iasi Der Cimitriul Eternitatea".