In 1939, shortly after the death of his mother, Wilfried defended his PhD thesis on spectroscopical study of the double star alpha Aurigae (Capella).
At the beginning of World War II, Wilfried was enlisted to the infantry at Frankfurt an der Oder and first fought in Poland, France and the Baltic coast of Germany.
The end of the war found him at the Baltic coast of Germany, from where he walked to Berlin to reunite with his family.
After the war, he settled in Karlsruhe and changed his scientific field from astronomy to acoustics and became consultant to a large company.
Wilfried married in 1941 and had two sons; one was studying mathematics and another worked as a teacher with handicapped children.