Born in 1893, Willi Schmid served in the Imperial Army in World War I, during which he was wounded in the stomach.

A practising musician, he studied music under Christian Döbereiner, and founded the Munich Viol Quartet.

Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess visited the family a few days later to express condolences for the mistake and offer his widow a pension.

[4] Schmid's widow, Kate Eva (née Tietz), later emigrated to the United States (with the help of the covert anti-Nazi activist Fritz Wiedemann, who was with Hess during his visit) and became a US citizen in 1944.

Schmid's friend, the philosopher Oswald Spengler, commemorated him in a poem and letter in Reden und Aufsätze (Collected Essays, published in 1937).