Hranislav Đorić received a broad education and was among most educated members of the Serbian clergy, attending primary school in Velika Drenova and Kruševac, seminary in Belgrade and Sremski Karlovci (graduating in 1921), studying law in Paris' Sorbonne and finally graduating from the University of Belgrade's Orthodox Theology Faculty in 1942.

In that capacity, he was elected a vicar bishop of Moravica and, becoming a widower, he took monastic vows in Studenica monastery, July 7, 1951, acquiring the name German (Herman).

The new bishop became at the same time the secretary general of the Holy Synod and editor in chief of the Glasnik, the official gazette of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

When Patriarch Vikentije II suddenly died on July 5, 1958, internal strife struck the church leadership and no agreement could be reached on who would succeed him.

It began in 1958, the very year of German's election, with an allegedly willing acceptance of the autonomy of Ohrid Archbishopric proclaimed by the archbishop Dositej.

German set to revitalize the Serbian Orthodox Church, which (like other religious communities in Yugoslavia) received no state support.

In 1984, German visited the site of the Jasenovac concentration camp, saying a now famous line: "To forgive, we must ...to forget, we must not" (Опростити морамо, заборавити не смемо).

[6] Many consider German's greatest achievement to be his successful campaign for the resumption of the construction of the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, which was stopped in 1941.

After the death of Josip Broz Tito in 1980, he slowly pushed church issues as Yugoslav society changed and nationalism grew among the various peoples, and in the end he was universally popular among the Serbs and had become a part of the Serbian social elite.

As a result of this, the Holy Synod declared him incapacitated on November 30, 1990, and appointed the metropolitan bishop of Zagreb and Ljubljana Jovan Pavlović as the guardian of the throne and elected the new patriarch, Pavle, on December 1, 1990.