The lawyer Friedrich Hermann was born as Fritz Salomon in Gent, Belgium, on December 20th, 1902, the son of the merchant Hermann Salomon and his wife Toni (?). After attending school in Belgium and Germany he studied law in Frankfurt am Main, Munich, and Freiburg im Breisgau and received his doctorate diploma in 1926. He was admitted to the bar in Frankfurt in 1928. In 1933 he was disbarred and no longer allowed to practice law. He emigrated to New York in 1935 (?) where he changed his to Friedrich Hermann and started to work in the hop business.
Friedrich Hermann's first wife Gertrud (née Reinemann) was born on December 18th, 1907 in Frankfurt am Main. She was trained as a kindergarten teacher. The Hermann couple was acquainted with the Czech-German author Johannes Urzidil (1896-1970); Gertrud Hermann was also in contact with the German expressionist writer Fritz von Unruh (1885-1970).
In the early 1960s Friedrich Hermann married a second time. The name of the second wife of Friedrich Hermann was Renee (née Neuman). Her father, Willy Neuman, who died in 1919, owned a racing stable.
From the guide to the Gertrud and Friedrich Hermann Family Collection, 1908-1962, (Leo Baeck Institute)