Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hermann Mathias Görgen

After graduating from high school in Saarlouis, Hermann Mathias Görgen studied theology, philosophy, education, history, and canon law at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn, where he earned his Dr. phil. degree in 1933 with the dissertation “Contributions to the History of the Ethical Movement and Its Significance for the Development of Friedrich Wilhelm Förster’s Philosophical and Pedagogical Views up to the Year 1904,” marking the beginning of his academic career.

From 1933 to 1935, he initially served as an assistant to Friedrich Wilhelm Förster in Bonn. Even during this time, he was active as a journalist in the Catholic opposition. In 1935, he fled from the Nazis to Austria, where he served as an assistant at the Research Institute for German Intellectual History in Salzburg until 1938. There, he cataloged the estate of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. His alleged appointment in 1938 as a full professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the Catholic University of Salzburg—which was then in the process of being established—is a matter of controversy.

Immediately after the annexation of Austria, Hermann Mathias Görgen fled to Czechoslovakia and from there to Switzerland. There, with the support of the Vatican, he organized the escape of emigrants to Brazil and emigrated there himself in 1941, where he continued his teaching career.

After 1950, he returned to Germany, became Director General of Saarländischer Rundfunk, and served as a member of the German Bundestag from 1957 to 1961.