Frank Terpe was born a couple of weeks before the US Stock Market famously collapsed, in a small country town some 25 km (15 miles) down river of Meißen in central Germany. His father was a crane operator. When Terpe was slightly more than three years old, Germany became a one party state. He attended junior school locally in Nünchritz between 1936 and 1940 and the Adolf Hitler Middle School from 1942 to 1945. He successfully completed his schooling at the upper school in Riesa, a short distance down the river and on the other side if it.