After graduating from school, Manfred started looking for an apprenticeship. He wanted to learn a technical trade and applied to the Bosch company in Stuttgart and to companies in Jungingen that manufactured precision mechanical equipment. The companies were willing to accept him as an apprentice, but a Nazi official vetoed this training course. The only apprenticeship left for Manfred was at the Loewengard Mechanical Jersey Weaving Company in Hechingen, which belonged to a Jewish family. There, too, he was denied a technical apprenticeship. He had to start a commercial apprenticeship, which he did not want. "For three years I went into the apprenticeship. I hated every single day." At the same time, he attended commercial school. After completing his apprenticeship, he worked as a clerk at Loewengard for another year.