Karl Heinz Göller was born in Neheim-Hüsten (now Arnsberg) near Dortmund, Germany, in 1924.
In 1973 he served as president of the Deutscher Anglistenverband, a learned society for English scholars in Germany, and in 1983 he delivered the plenary at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University.
The same European vision lay behind his later connections with Eastern Europe: after the collapse of Communism, Göller championed the idea of recreating a Central European intellectual sphere, and in particular used his influence to support English studies in Poland.
From among his students, Uwe Böker, Renate Haas, Christoph Houswitschka, Anke Janssen, Franz Meier, and Richard Utz became leading researchers in the field of English and Medieval Studies.
Göller was widely admired for the number and range of his publications: six books and over 110 essays on topics as diverse as the Old English elegies, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Shelley, T. S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, nursery rhymes and science fiction.