Ferdinand A. Hermens (20 December 1906 - 2 February 1998) was an German-American political scientist and economist. He was born in Nieheim in Germany and he died in Rockville, MD (U.S.).[1]
Joseph Schumpeter was the supervisor of his doctoral dissertation at the University of Bonn.
In 1934 Hermens, an active member of a Catholic students' association, emigrated to the U.K. and in 1935 to the U.S., where he served Assistant Professor of Economics with the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. In 1938 he moved to South Bend, IN where he became an Associate Professor of Economics with the University of Notre Dame. In 1945 he was made Professor of Political Science with the University of Notre Dame.[2]
Between 1959 and 1971 Hermens returned to Germany to become Professor of Political Science at the University of Cologne.[3] In this position he succeeded Heinrich Brüning, who had been Reichskanzler from 1930 to 1932. During his tenure at Cologne Hermens was supervisor for a couple of post-docs and PhD-candidates who later became professors of political science in German universities. Among them are: Rudolf Wildenmann (University of Mannheim), Gerda Zellentin (University of Wuppertal), Werner Kaltefleiter (University of Kiel), Hans Kammler (University of Hohenheim), Johannes Agnoli (Free University of Berlin), Paul Kevenhörster (University of Münster).[4] Hermens retired at the end of 1971 and returned to the U.S. where he lived in the Washington, DC area.[5]
His scholarly work includes a wealth of books and numerous articles. Among his major books are "Democarcy or Anarchy?" and "The Representative Republic". Both books have been translated into German, Italian and Hebrew.[6] Hermens' most important contribution to the progress of political science has been his analysis of the impact that electoral systems have in structuring party competition. The Library of Congress holds about 25 titles by this scholar or related to him.