​​Walter Ackermann was born in Magdeburg on 19 October 1911. He worked as a commercial clerk in his father's printing company. In 1938 he married Ruth Ackermann, née Balcke, and they had two sons, Manfred and Wilfried. In July 1940, Walter Ackermann was called up for military service. He was stationed in France on the Channel coast as a radio operator and had the rank of sergeant. Ackermann saw his family for the last time in December 1943. His eldest son was three years old at the time.

​On 6 June 1944, he became an English prisoner of war. Sixteen days later, on 22 June 1944, the German air force bombed the St. Laurent POW camp where Walter Ackermann was interned. Ackermann was killed in this attack. His wife and children, who had to leave Magdeburg in the meantime due to an air raid, only learned of Ackermann's death two years later.

Walter Ackermann now rests in the war cemetery in La Cambe. The final grave location is in block 9, row 6, grave 228. Ruth Ackermann was able to visit her husband's grave for the first time in 1967. According to the relatives, he remained in the family's vivid memory.​