[1] Ludwig was one of three children of Max Berwald, an East Prussian owner of a famous bookstore, and Friedericke Fischel.

[1] There he studied mathematics under Aurel Voss, alongside notable mathematicians Hugo Dingler and Fritz Noether,[3] and received his PhD in 1908 for his thesis entitled Über die Krümmungseigenschaften der Brennflächen eines geradlinigen Strahlsystems und der in ihm enthaltenen Regelflächen (On the properties of curvature on the internal surfaces of rectilinear systems, and surfaces contained therein).

There, he developed friendships and successful collaborations with fellow mathematicians Georg Pick, Paul Funk, and Élie Cartan, publishing some 54 articles[1] which significantly advanced the field of Finsler geometry, pioneering important concepts which still bear his name such as Berwald curvature, Berwald spray,[5] and the Berwald–Moór metric function.

[7] On 22 October 1941, the day after submitting his last article,[8] the sickly 57-year-old Berwald was deported to the Łódź Ghetto in Poland in the third transportation of Jews by the German secret police.

The Berwalds were two of 55 people who lived in 48 Maryśinska Street in a one-room approximately 20 by 20 feet (6 m × 6 m) with no beds.