[1] Aufderbeck was born in Hellefeld, a small village in the heart of the Sauerland countryside, and located some 70 km (45 miles) to the southeast of Dortmund.
His early years were spent in a Roman Catholic environment, but he then switched to secondary school, the humanist "Laurentian Gymnasium" in nearby Arnsberg.
Aufderbeck now relocated to the eastern part of the large Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paderborn: he became vicar of the provost's parish of Saints Francis and Elizabeth in Halle, also becoming a student chaplain for the city.
Using the military mail service he had built up and sustained a massive correspondence, which by Easter 1945 and the end of the war had involved several thousand soldiers.
He was the Roman Catholic representative in liaison with the newly formed Free German Youth (FDJ / Freie Deutsche Jugend).
The FDJ was the youth wing of the recently renamed and reconstituted ruling party in this part of Germany, which by the later 1940s was in the process of reverting to one-party dictatorship.
In 1947 Aufderbeck was appointed by Wilhelm Weskamm, the episcopal commissioner (who later became the Bishop of Berlin) as the permanent representative of the Archbishop's Commission for Youth Work in the Province of Saxony.
Of particular importance are Aufderbeck's efforts regarding liturgical renewal, the "priestless" offices in remoter areas, with Communion celebrated by members of the laity, and his work at preparing priests and believers for ideological confrontation with Communism.