[1] His most important contribution to the progress of political science was his analysis of the impact that electoral systems have in structuring party competition.
In 1934 Hermens, an active member of a Catholic students' fraternity, left Nazi Germany to spend a year as a research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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.
[4] 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.
[6] 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.