DFG President from 1955 to 1964
Gerhard Hess was born in Lörrach on 13 April 1907. He studied Romance languages and literatures at Basle, Heidelberg and Berlin, and gained his doctorate at the University of Berlin in 1931. After working as a research assistant, he received his habilitation (venia legendi) in Romance philology in 1938.
From 1940-41 he worked as a research assistant at the Leibniz Commission of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, then taught at the University of Heidelberg, initially as a reader, from 1946 as a professor, and from 1948 as Full Professor of Romance Philology. He died in Constance on 30 June 1983 at the age of 76.
Officier de la Légion d'Honneur (1961), Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern) (1964), honorary citizen of the City of Constance (1972)
Dr.-Ing. E.H. from the Technical University of Berlin
Romance languages and literatures, especially history of French literature and philosophy