Ferdinand A. Hermens

Ferdinand A. Hermens (20 December 1906 – 2 February 1998) was a German-American political scientist and economist. He was born in Nieheim, Kreis Höxter (district) in Germany and he died in Rockville, MD (U.S.). His major books "Democracy or Anarchy?" and "The Representative Republic" (1958) were translated into German, Italian and Hebrew.

Life and career

Hermens studied at the Universities of Münster, Freiburg, Berlin and Bonn, In 1928 he graduated from the University of Bonn with an M.A. in Economics (Diplom-Volkswirt). 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 Ph.D. 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). Hermens was one of the seven members of a committee of experts that recommended the introduction of a plurality voting system (first-past-the-past) for elections of the German Bundestag to the Ministry of the Interior in 1968. He retired at the end of 1971 and returned to the U.S. where he lived in the Washington, DC area. Most of them are based on his "thoroughly sound thesis that until we understand fully the great influence which structural relationships can have on governmental policy we shall be unprepared to put representative government in the position of strength it must have to meet the challenges which now confront it." The Library of Congress (see External links) holds about 25 titles by this scholar or related to him, the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) lists 31 items. Not all of them are meintioned here:

Was ist Kapitalismus? Altenburg: Pierer, 1931 (Bonn, Univ., Diss., 1931) Demokratie und Kapitalismus. Ein Versuch zur Soziologie der Staatsformen. München: Duncker&Humblot, 1931. Demokratie und Wahlrecht. Eine wahlrechtssoziologische Untersuchung zur Krise der parlamentarischen Regierungsbildung. Paderborn: Schöningh, 1933. Unternehmer und Konjunktur. Berlin; Weidmann, 1935. Der Staat und die Weltwirtschaftskrise. Berlin: Payer&Co., 1936. (reprinted with a supplement by the author - New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1972).

The Fifth Republic. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1960. Der Ost-West-Konflikt. Gründe und Scheingründe. Frankfurt: Athenäum Verlag, 1961. Wirtschaftliche und staatliche Stabilität. Frankfurt: Athenäum Verlag, 1964. Demokratie oder Anarchie? Frankfurt: A. Metzner, 1951 (2nd ed., Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1968), Verfassungslehre. Frankfurt: Athenäum Verlag, 1964 (2nd ed., Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1968). Zwischen Politik und Vernunft. Gesammelte Aufsätze aus drei Welten. Berlin: Duncker&Humblot, 1969.