He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Göttingen, where he received his doctorate in 1923, as a pupil of Max Born and a fellow student with Werner Heisenberg.
[2] Later in 1925, he joined Paul P. Ewald at the University of Stuttgart, where he achieved his habilitation in 1931 with the thesis title Die Symmetriegruppen der amorphen und mesomorphen Phasen.
During World War II, he and his wife Eva Hermann-Lueddecke [de] (1900 – 1997), who were both Quakers and pacifists, helped provide deported Jews with food, clothing and other resources.
Eva Hermann wrote about the honor: "I am fully conscious of the fact that my late husband and I did nothing special; we simply tried to remain human in the midst of inhumanity.
"[8] In August 1994, the German Crystallographic Society (DGK) established the Carl Hermann Medal, its highest distinction, for outstanding contributions to the science of crystallography.