Born in Liegnitz, Germany (known as Legnica after the transfer of the eastern Silesia region to Poland following the Second World War) on May 18, 1923, Joachim Friedrich Pusch was raised in Royn, a rural farming village. Beginning at age ten, he attended a private Lutheran missionary school in Niesky. At age seventeen, Pusch was graduated early in October 1940 in order to join the German Army. He was assigned to the 14th artillery regiment, 14th infantry division, which fought Russian forces along the Eastern Front. In July 1944, Pusch was assigned to the 256th Volksgrenadier division, fighting along the Western Front. Having surrendered to American forces in early 1945, he was a prisoner of war for one year, beginning March 22.

After the war, Pusch worked as a driver for the American Red Cross and as an interpreter for the U.S. military government. Eventually he sought sponsorship for immigration to the United States. Fred and Eda Jaeger (Wells, Minnesota) sponsored him, and he arrived in summer 1951. Pusch married Evelyn Ingeborg Olson in February 1952, fathered four children, and was granted citizenship on June 7, 1955. He earned an agriculture degree from the University of Minnesota and later worked as a Fillmore County extension agent and teacher at Norwood Young America. He returned to the University for a master's degree in education and worked at North Hennepin Community College, retiring in 1991.