A Tribute to Joseph Ludwig Jr.

Written by: Joe Ludwig

When I attended the University of Cincinnati, I had to take a public speaking class. One of the assignments in this class was to write and present a “tribute” speech. I wrote my speech about Joseph Ludwig Jr., my Opa (AKA grandfather).

This speech was written in 2010, for a specific purpose and audience. As part of the grading criteria, there was a strict time limit, so some of the more complicated details of his life have been simplified as a result. Nevertheless, I thought I would republish as a tribute to him.

My Opa passed away on September 12, 2020. I made some slight content modifications to my tribute speech to reflect this.

A Tribute to Joseph Ludwig Jr.

A speech written and recited by Joseph T. Ludwig

Joseph Ludwig Jr., my grandfather, is the hardest working, and strongest man that I know. Throughout his 88 years of life, he has endured more hardships and has seen more than anyone in this room can begin to imagine, while still coming out with his head held high.

My grandfather was born in 1932 in Hatzfeld, Romania to Barbra and Josef Ludwig. For the first 13 years of his life, he grew up with his older sister named Barbra on his father’s farm. 

But dark times fell, and the world broke out into war. However, it wasn’t until towards the end of the war until the war hit home. For those of you who don’t remember, the Russians switched sides at the end of World War II and they invaded from the east while the other Allies invaded from the West. The Russian Army was known to be not very nice to the civilians and they were even encouraged to “rape and pillage” the towns they entered in order to maintain control.

When my grandpa’s family heard that the Russians were coming, they decided to leave everything behind. They took only what they could carry. Just like that my grandpa and his family were fleeing for their life. In the next couple of years to follow they fled to Hungary, then Austria, and finally, Germany where my grandpa and his family were forced into a refugee camp. At the refugee camp, the conditions were extremely tough. They had very little food or water. They were at the refugee camp for four long years. 

During the Post-World War II years, you could only come to the U.S. if you were fortunate enough to have family living there. My grandpa and his family were fortunate enough to have family in the U.S. to sponsor them. When he was 18 years old, he finally came to America with nothing more than the clothes on his back, and on top of that, he did not speak a word of English. To make ends meet they stayed with a family in Delhi and did servant-type work. He worked all day and he spent his evenings going to night school, determined to learn English.

In 1955, five years later, he became a U.S. citizen, one of his proudest accomplishments. He helped create the Cincinnati Donauschwaben, which is a club for German immigrants just like him who lost everything back in the old country. He met my grandma (Oma) through this club and they got married in 1960. They settled in a two-family home in Cheviot where they lived with their two children (Joseph A. and Anne Marie) and his wife’s grandparents, aunt, and mother-in-law. Shortly after, my grandpa got a job at Cincinnati Milacron working with the service parts and repair department. He worked his way up and eventually became a top manager.

He retired in 1989 and used his retirement money to buy a lot of land in Winchester, Ohio. Going back to his roots as a farmer, he had a garden, many heads of cattle, and, for a short time, horses.

Up until the pandemic in 2020 he was actively involved in the Cincinnati Donauschwaben Society. He played many major leadership roles throughout the years. He was president, part of the committee that worked very hard to create a DVD documentary of everyone’s personal stories plus he served as the financial secretary and the cultural committee chair.

My grandpa has been through a lot in his 88 years of life, but despite that, he still managed to endure the challenges that life brought to him every day. Up until his passing, he still worked hard at everything that he did, no matter what it was.

For all of these reasons my grandpa, Joseph Ludwig Jr., is my hero.

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