Due to his half-Jewish heritage from his father, Karl Jakob Mayer, he received severe persecution from the Nazi Party.

His father emigrated to Argentina in 1933, though he stayed in Germany with his mother, Emmi Meisinger.

He found refuge at the Ettal Monastery, where he attended secondary school.

Aside from the Mainz Cathedral, the windows became the most popular religious attraction in the city.

He wrote the four-volume collection Die Chagall-Fenster zu St. Stephan in Mainz and his own memoir in 2007, titled Wie ich überlebte.