Hermann Weiss *68

Hermann died March 18, 2026, in Dexter, Mich.

He was born June 17, 1937, in Beuel, Germany. He attended Bonn University as an undergraduate and spent time in England and a year of college in Aberdeen, Scotland. He taught German and German studies for a year at St. Andrews University.

Studying and teaching in English-speaking countries inspired Herman to take a job as a lecturer at the University of Oregon. He earned a Ph.D. in Germanic languages and literature from Princeton in 1968.

Hermann spent his academic career at the University of Michigan. His teaching and research focused on German authors of the early 19th century, notably Heinrich von Kleist. He published a book Funde und Studien zu Heinrich von Kleist. He discovered five previously unknown letters by Kleist — a find that was published in the Kleist-Jahrbuch 2025.

Hermann developed an interest in German forced labor camps and wrote entries for an online encyclopedia of the Holocaust. He published a book that explored his family’s wartime experiences when his father worked as a civil engineer at a factory in Silesia that employed forced labor.

He is survived by his wife, Rebecca Hoort; brothers Robert and Gebhardt; and several nieces and nephews.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.