V. Wildenstein Freiburg im Breisgau, a Catholic student fraternity that belong to the Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen.
After the National Socialists won the elections in Germany and took over the government, he, like many other outspoken Catholics, lost his career and was forced to leave his native country.
Göetz Briefs emigrated to the USA, where he found a teaching position as guest professor at the Catholic University and later full professor at the Jesuit Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. After being widowed during the war years, he married Elinor Castendyk in 1951, who later became known for her work on and translations of Romano Guardini.
After his retirement, the couple lived in a mountain retreat near the Trappist monastery Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville in Clarke County, Virginia, which he visited with his wife on a daily basis.
Briefs influenced the social teachings of the Catholic Church and was considered a ghost writer of the encyclical Quadragesimo anno of Pope Pius XI with his friend, the Jesuit Gustav Gundlach, with whom he spent his annual Summer vacations together.