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Ernst Wilfred Puttkammer (1891-1978) was the only child of a second son of a Prussian noble family. He was born January 31, 1891, in Chicago. His parents Victorian summer cottage on Mackinac Island figured prominently in Puttkammer's life and the lives of his descendants.

He was well-traveled and educated by tutors and eventually attended Princeton. While there he became well-versed in Latin, Greek, French, German (in which he was fluent) and English, and was fond of music and history. He developed a major collection of American stamps and the world's most comprehensive collection of German Empire stamps, which he eventually gave to the Smithsonian Institution

After graduating from Princeton, Puttkammer attended the University of Chicago Law School where he earned his degree cum laude and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He then traveled to France as a private in the American Expeditionary Force, serving as a front-line observer of enemy gun positions and troop movements.

On returning to Chicago, Puttkammer practiced law for a year and then was asked by the University of Chicago Law School to take a temporary post teaching criminal law. He remained on the faculty for thirty-six years.

Puttkammer wrote The Administration of Criminal Law, which became a major text. To learn how the criminal law really worked, Puttkammer informally attended the Police Academy, then wrote an effective handbook advising police about their rights and the rights of their suspects.

Puttkammer married Helen Baum November 28, 1931. They had a daughter, Helen Lorna and a son, Charles Wilfred.

Puttkammer joined the Chicago Literary Club in 1923 and delivered nineteen papers, of which three were published; he delivered two Ladies' Night papers. He traveled widely and often. In late 1977 he and his family toured Germany and France, and then, early in 1978, he and his wife went on a long cruise, during which he died on a ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean.