Bergmann was influenced by the philosophers Moritz Schlick, Friedrich Waismann, and Rudolf Carnap, who were members of the Circle.

His dissertation, directed by Walther Mayer, was titled Zwei Beiträge zur mehrdimensionalen Differentialgeometrie.

While studying for his doctorate, he was invited to join the Vienna Circle, a group of philosophers, mathematicians, scientists, and others committed to a scientific worldview under the name of logical positivism.

Unable as a Jew to find academic employment, Bergmann obtained a J.D.

degree from the University of Vienna in 1935, and practiced corporate law until he and his family fled to the United States in 1938.