Early Life and Military Service
Ratzinger was born in Bavaria to Joseph Ratzinger, a police officer, and Maria Ratzinger, née Peintner. He had a younger brother, Joseph, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, and a sister, Maria. Early in his life he showed musical talent, playing the church organ already at the age of 11. In 1935 he entered the minor seminary in Traunstein and had professional musical instruction there. In 1941 he encountered for the first time the choir of the Regensburger Domspatzen, which he would later direct, when they performed in Salzburg on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Mozart's death.
In summer 1942 Georg Ratzinger was drafted to the Reichsarbeitsdienst, and the same autumn to the German Wehrmacht. In 1944 he was wounded in battle in Italy. At the end of World War II, he was a prisoner of war of the U.S. Army in the vicinity of Naples, but was released, and arrived at home in July 1945.
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