He was the son of Dr. Otto Ballerstedt Senior, a well-known editor of the Münchner Neueste Nachrichten, and his wife Julie, née Lagel.
Ballerstedt - "white blue" and monarchist-minded - thought that, while respecting the unity of the Empire, the inner autonomy and independence of the individual federal States should be significantly strengthened.
Hitler described Ballerstedt later in one of his monologues in the Fuehrer's headquarters during the Second World War in retrospect as his most dangerous opponent on the field of activity as a public speaker.
[5] On 14 September 1921, there was a highly publicized incident, when Hitler, Hermann Esser, Oskar Körner (later to die in the Beer Hall Putsch) and some other NSDAP supporters stormed a Ballerstedt meeting in the Munich Löwenbräukeller in order to prevent him giving a lecture.
He was killed during the Night of the Long Knives in or near Dachau concentration camp and his body found on the morning of 1 July in the forest near Gündinger Neuhimmelreich.