Karl-Josef Weigang was born on April 9, 1895 in Fischeln, today a suburb of Krefeld. He was the son of the traveling salesman Josef Weigang and his wife Maria. Classified as unfit for service in the First World War because of a stomach disorder, he was drafted in under the Auxiliary Service Act to work in a mental hospital. After the war Karl-Josef Weigang completed secondary school in Krefeld in 1922. He then studied in Innsbruck and Bonn before, in 1925, switching to the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, where he majored in education with philosophy and theology as his minor subjects. In 1929 he earned his doctorate with a thesis on the forms and psychological foundations of advertising. After his studies Karl-Josef Weigang remained in Munich. In October 1935, he moved into Gedonstraße 12 (today 10).
Karl-Josef Weigang was arrested on January 6, 1937. The Munich Landgericht (district court) heard the case on April 21, 1937, charges of violating paragraph 175 of the Reich Criminal Code ‒ sexual acts and sodomy between men ‒ and the forging of documents. It is not known if Karl-Josef Weigang was homosexual. The court found him guilty, sentencing him to a two-month prison term and imposing a fine of 50 Reichsmark. The sentence had already been served in his pretrial detention. Karl-Josef Weigang was taken into “protective custody” on September 24, 1937. Barely two weeks later, on October 6, 1937, the Gestapo (Secret Police) transferred him to Dachau concentration camp. His registration card there notes several camp punishments, including time served in the bunker. During Karl-Josef Weigang’s imprisonment, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität instigated proceedings to have his doctoral title revoked. They were never completed. Karl-Josef Weigang was murdered on December 29, 1938 in Dachau concentration camp. The responsible registry office stated heart and circularity failure as the cause on the death certificate. (text Stefan Dickas, editor C. Fritsche, translation P. Bowman)
