While serving as an ambassador to King Stephen Báthory of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Hermann embarked to the city of Riga, where he married and settled down.

He stayed at the Imperial Court, including a stint in Prague, until 1579, when he received and accepted an offer of employment from the city of Gdańsk.

[2] Báthory had recently besieged Gdańsk and forced the city to pay a tribute and accept the king as their overlord, and Hermann was entrusted with negotiating the implementation of the settlement.

[9] Apart from his engagement in diplomacy and politics, Hermann was a productive poet, writing in Modern Latin and participating actively in the intellectual life of Riga.

[10][2] Much of what he wrote was occasional poetry, composed for example to celebrate the wedding of friends and colleagues, or to commemorate their death, but also to mark important events in the lives of princes and kings.

He also composed didactic poems, intended to offer instruction or insight in fields such as theology, philosophy, natural science or politics.

[6] Within this genre he composed poems on very diverse subjects, for example on the inclusion of a lizard and a frog in a piece of amber, the eagle in the coat of arms of Poland, and a child suffering from Fraser syndrome.

[8] Hermann also possessed a personal library containing several important early editions of classical authors, though much of it was lost during World War II.