[2] He entered the order of the Society of the Divine Word (abbreviated to SVD on the basis of the Latin Societas Verbi Divini) to study for the priesthood at St.Gabriel's in Mödling, and was ordained in 1928.
[3] The SVD was a German-Dutch Catholic congregation which managed to send some 90 missionaries into the Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces of north-west China between 1922 and 1953, where they established some thirty missions.
His medical assistance provided him with an excellent opportunity to study both the social position of Tibetan women and acquaint himself with the intimate side of their lives.
[6] After the Communist victory in China he could no longer return to Tibet, and spent some time in Europe before taking up a position in India, where he pursued his researches in Nepal.
[9] In a research career that extended over four decades, Hermanns published over twenty books and articles, mainly on the pastoral peoples of the Amdo and their dialects, religion, culture and nomadic way of life.